


Infinite: A Space Travel Adventure

by yuniesan



Series: Thanos Murder Squad [1]
Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Asgardians who survived, Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie) Compliant, Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant, Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Spoilers, Conversations, Earth's Mightiest Heroes - Freeform, F/F, F/M, Fix-It, Fluff and Angst, Knowhere (Marvel), M/M, Nebula threatens someone, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Post-Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Sakaar (Marvel), Steve and Tony Talk, Stranded Bros, Tagging as I go, Thanos Murder Squad, They made it to Earth, Thor and his lighting are here to save the day, Time to start planning the next step, Tony Stark & Nebula (Friendship), Tony Stark Has Nightmares, Working on reviving Vision, Working through my anger, Xandar, and a Hulk, ignoring Pepper/Tony, oh look we found the quinjet, pre-relationship Steve Rogers/Tony Stark, saving the universe, space adventures, we have an army
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-05
Updated: 2018-06-16
Packaged: 2019-05-02 08:45:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 26,494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14541021
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yuniesan/pseuds/yuniesan
Summary: They were the only ones left on Titan, no one else survived. A common goal between them. Save the Universe or Die trying.A Space Adventure that includes, two unlikely partners, a mad dash plan, a sprinkle of angst, and an army of people willing to help them.





	1. Part One: Titan

**Author's Note:**

  * For [a_salty_alto](https://archiveofourown.org/users/a_salty_alto/gifts).



> this is for @a_salty_alto because without which the conversation wouldn't have turned into what it turned into.  
> (https://yuniesan.tumblr.com/post/173578935832/a-salty-alto-yuniesan-a-salty-alto)

They were the only ones left on Titan, the ashes of their friends and those who had fought with them laid to waste on the ground in the air. The planet itself was a wasteland, pieces of its former glory standing tall around them, while crumpled pieces of their moon was spread around them.

They were unlikely allies, and they knew it, both of them had lost so much. One of them not knowing the fate of his home planet, the other losing the only family she had ever really cared for.

Tony was in pain, the stab wound could only heal so much with what he had used, but he couldn’t get the image of Peter crumbling away in his hands out of his mind. The boy’s last words etched into his brain, and the knowledge that he had known that it was coming. He remembered Peter telling him about this growing power he had, a spidey sense he had called it, the fact that he can tell when danger was coming. It was a developing power and still only right half the time, but the one-time Tony had wished that Peter had been wrong about that power. Just one time, he had wished it, because the kid died in his hands and his ashes were under his fingernails, in his lungs clinging to him.

_I don't want to go.. please, Sir... I don't want to go. Mr. Stark... I'm sorry_

The words were ringing in his ears, everyone around them had turned to ash, everyone was gone because Strange was stupid enough to give the stone to Thanos. Now Tony wasn’t sure about anything. He looked around to see what was left, they needed to get off that hellish wasteland, they needed to get back to Earth because he needed to know who lived.

“We need to get off this god forsaken rock,” he said looking at the blue and purple woman standing in front of him. She was the one who had crash landed an alien craft on that purple mother fucker, so maybe she could help him.

“And where do you think we should go?” she looked at him as she slowly picked her fingernails. Tony could tell that it was a nervous habit, she was trying to distract herself from what had just happened. “We have nowhere to go, he left us here to die regardless of whether or not we survived.”

“Listen, I don’t care what you think, you can die here alone for all I care, but I need to see if my friends, my family, I need to know who lived, or at least what’s left of them,” he said looking back to where Peter had faded away.

The heaviness in his chest reminded him of the time he had his arc reactor imbedded in his chest, even the one that had housed his new armor wasn’t what it had once was. He could feel the tightness around his lungs as the casing had pushed aside enough just to make sure that it could fit. The memory of Yinsen push forward reminding him not to waste his life. Looking around at the wasteland around them, of a planet that had once been home to a madman he started to think that there had to be a way to change it all. The armor was in pieces around him, shattered around on the ground, and he didn’t care, he could build a new one, a better one. He needed the strongest medal he could find, because once he was done he was going to send that purple fucking grape into oblivion.

“We are getting off this rock,” he said standing up and looking her in the eye.  He was going to go back to Earth and he was going to do what Avengers do, he was going to avenge those who had lost their lives.

Looking around he saw the ship that had been left behind by the guardians, he didn’t know how to fly it, he wasn’t sure if what he was doing was the right thing to do, but people sacrificed themselves to try and save the universe and he wasn’t going to let them die in vain. He didn’t look back to see if she had followed him, he didn’t care if she had, all he knew was that he needed to get home and he needed his suit.

Just as he made it to the back of the ship he felt his knees give out under him, his body was shaking and the pain from the stab wound had gotten worse. “Well shit,” he said before passing out on the ground.

Memories came forth in his sleep, his parents the last day he saw them, their funeral, Obie holding onto him. Obie’s betrayal, Yinsen dying, Afghanistan, the ten rings, every memory flashed through his mind and faded quickly. New York, the portal, the first time he saw the army, waking up with Ste—Rogers standing over him.

_I’ll miss you Tony_

All of a sudden, the memories from the accords, the war, and Rogers once again standing over him, the shield cracking into his armor. The truth of his parents’ deaths. His eyes snapped open, over his head was that blue and purple woman once again.

“You’re an idiot,” she said to him the moment his eyes had opened.

They were in a room somewhere on the ship, he knew that for sure because he was on a bed and not the cold hard floor. The ship wasn’t moving, they were still on that hell of a planet that took so much from him and left him stranded.

“Stop scowling, we’ll move when you’re not bleeding all over the place,” she said to him and he realized he didn’t even know who she was. If someone had said her name at some point when they had been fighting he didn’t register it over everything else that was happening.

“My name is Tony Stark,” he said to her hoping to at least get her name. They were going to be stuck together for a while because he knew that they both had the same goal.

“Nebula,” she said before turning away from him.

“What’s your beef with the purple grape?” he asked genuinely curious, they had all had something to fight for when this had started. He now had a bigger purpose now that it was over, he wanted those stones, he wanted everything back to the way it was supposed to be.

“He’s my father, and he killed the only real family I had just to get one of those stones,” she said not turning back. Tony couldn’t believe what he was hearing, how on Earth was she related to someone as crazy as Thanos. Could he truly trust her? He knew, at that moment, that he had no other choice but to put his trust in her, Thanos killed someone she cared about in the same way he had gone after those that Tony had cared for.

“Well everyone has a crazy relative they can’t stand,” he said as he sat up and moved his legs to touch the cold metal flood. “My father had more love for a soldier friend of his over his own kid, and my Uncle tried to kill me. But we’re in this together, and honestly we need to reverse everything Thanos has done just so that we can get our friends and family back.”

Nebula turned to look at him as if he had grown a third head, Tony knew that she was wondering why he hadn’t lashed out at him but honestly, he was tired of all of the drama in his life. If he could use the time stone himself he would change everything including the whole fight with Ste—Rogers. Hell, he would try and got back and fix the whole Ultron thing, but he didn’t have the stone, all he had was a space ship in the middle of the universe and a woman alien machine who he needed help from.

“Don’t worry too much, I’m guessing he’s an asshole dad, only loved one of you while they others suffered,” he said standing up. “But if we’re going to have any chance of fixing this, we need to get moving. I don’t know what he did, or what has happened after he left to make everyone turn to dust, but I’m sure as hell not going to allow him to get away with it.”

Looking around he saw that the ship was still intact even though a whole moon had been thrown at the planet, there were all kinds of things lying around the room from toys to clothes. Grabbing his shoes, he walked away and went towards the open hatch in the back and went looking for the pieces of his armor that had been shattered during the fight. He needed to get it working and hoped that there were tools he could use to fix it.

“So, you’re just going to get on some ship and travel the universe just to find out who lived?” she asked him once he had come back with pieces of the broken suit.

“Yes, because that’s what Avengers do, we avenge when some asshole decides to fuck with us,” he said before walking off and picking up more pieces of the suit.

“That’s stupid, if we have any chance of defeating my father we should go after him directly,” she yelled out.

Tony turned towards her, dropping everything he just picked up, “Listen, we went after him, do you see anyone else who survived, do you know how many of us it took to just get that glove off of him and we didn’t succeed because Quill freaked out on him. If we’re going to do this we need to do it together.”

The words reminded him of a long-lost conversation with Rogers just after Ultron had busted into their party, after years of taking down Hydra cells all over the world.

_Does anybody remember when I put a missile through a portal, in New York City? We were standing right under it. We're the Avengers, we can bust weapons dealers the whole doo-da-day, but how do we cope with something like that?_

That portal had started it all, Loki had started them on the path they were on, because if Thor had never come to Earth everything would have been different. But he can’t fault anyone for that, everything that happened had happened because of those damn stones.

_Together._ Steve…Rogers had said to him.

_We'll lose._

_We do that together too._

He tried his best to keep them together, because that’s how they were going to keep the world safe, but in the end the secrets that had been held back by Steve, because there was no way he could stop calling him that, the accords, the rift that had developed from him creating Ultron, had all but ripped it all apart. If Strange was right and out of fourteen million possible outcomes the only one where they win needed Tony alive, he was damn well going to make sure he didn’t mess it up.

“You can come with me, or you can stay here I don’t really give a damn, but I’m going to get to my team and I’m going to find a way to fix this hell that your father created,” he said trying to keep his voice steady, he knew it wasn’t her fault, it wasn’t his fault, it was no one’s fault, it was only the fault of those who had wished this hell on them.

Nebula stood there for a moment before nodding and turning towards where he had dropped the bits of his armor. She picked up what she could before walking off towards the ship without another word. Tony stood there and took a deep breath before turning towards where Peter had died, where the guardians had had their final moments, where Strange had sacrificed everything just to save him. He walked to the ship and grabbed the first set of empty containers he could find before walking out and began putting as much of their ashes into them before walking back to the ship and placing them near his armor. He wanted to remember their lives, even though he hadn’t known some of them for very long.

“I’m going to fix this,” he said to their ashes before turning towards the cockpit and sitting down. “Do you know how to fly one of these?”

“Yes,” was all she said before the ship took off.

Tony was tired, the fight with Thanos, the flight to save Peter, to save Strange, the battle on the streets of New York, it had all taken a toll on him. His body was exhausted, but he couldn’t sleep just yet. He watched as the sky changed color, as the deep darkness of space expanded around them. Memories of the battle of New York, the nuke floating in his head, everything he feared had come to life in front of him. He wondered if Bruce had found Steve, if they were all together when the inevitable had happened. Were they with family, had they found a way to save Vision, who had survived.

“Get some sleep, we’re going to be flying for some time,” Nebula said without looking back at him. He had a million questions for her, about her mechanical parts, about her father, her family, why she looked as broken as he felt.

Nothing was said aloud, instead Tony stood and walked away looking for a change of clothes and a way to take a shower, to take away the grime and the ashes of those he couldn’t protect. He found clothes that were a little too big on him, it reminded him of that time he had to wear SHIELD issued pants that were two sizes too big for him after a battle had gone on too long and his clothes had been soaked in some foreign substance. All around him were signs that these people had lived a different type of life than he had, there was an old Zune player on one of the shelves, it made him laugh it was such a long time ago when they had come out. On another was an old game from the 80s, a troll doll, all kinds of things that he hadn’t seen in years. It was eerie to see them, but Quill was from Earth so it could have been that he hadn’t been back for a long time.

He laid down on the bed and stared at the metal ceiling, the ship was flying somewhere in space, somewhere he never thought he would be. He wondered if this is how Thor felt when he had first come to Earth, the eerie feeling that you’re far from home, that the stars are not your own, and you didn’t know if you would see them again. Closing his eyes, he let himself think of a better time, no battles, no wars, when his family was still around and not separated.

Tony found himself dreaming of movie nights with the team, leaning against Steve as he took the popcorn from him. Thor asking about the things he saw in Star Wars, wondering if those creatures existed. Natasha bored out of her mind, painting his toe nails just because it was better than watching Star Wars for the fourth time because one of them hadn’t seen it yet. Clint on his phone texting someone, who Tony now knew was his wife and kids, while Bruce read some papers that someone had sent him on gamma rays.

The dream changed all of a sudden, he was back on Titan, the planet in ruins, except instead of the ashes of those who had died, he saw his team dying in front of him. The vision that Wanda had shown him so long ago playing out in his mind again. Ultron standing over him, taunting him before pushing him aside and killing his family.

“You could have saved them Stark,” he said before the world blew up around them.

He screamed out as he woke up in a foreign place, Ultron didn’t exist but it didn’t stop the panic attack that was fresh in his mind, in his heart, in the sweaty palms of his hands. His body shook as he tried to control the feeling of watching everyone die in front of him. He regretted not making that phone call, he had held onto that phone for two years, always keeping it charged, never letting it out of his sight. There had been a message on the phone before the attack on New York had happened, but he would never know what it had said.

“You scream in your sleep,” Nebula said scaring him even more, he hadn’t seen her come into the room let alone notice that she had been standing right over him the entire time.

“Don’t do that,” he said his voice hoarse. “I have a heart condition.”

Nebula sighed before sitting down next to him, he put her hand on his shoulder and squeeze a little. She was trying to comfort him, and he knew it but he noticed how stiff she was, which meant she had never received comfort from anyone before. He realized that not everyone had a mother like his, but even his mother had her faults, but he loved her anyway.

“When I was little,” he said looking at the far end of the room. “My mother used to sing to me in Italian,” when Nebula looked at him funny he realized that not everyone had dialects like those on Earth. “It’s a language where I’m from, anyway, she always used to sing to me when she was putting me to bed. This was before my father told her to stop coddling me, that I’m a boy and one day I was going to be the head of the company. When she stopped, I started wondering what I had done wrong, it took me a long time to realize that none of it had been my fault.”

“Why are you telling me this?” she asked him before taking her hand back and placing it on her lap.

“Because someone out there loved you once and you lost them to a father who didn’t care so much about you. Maybe you hated that person at one point but in the end, they were your anchor to the world.”

Nebula nodded and stared out at the same space he had been staring at. “My sister Gamora,” she said, her voice heavy with emotions that she may not have been used to. “She sacrificed herself for me, Quill was her lover and that could be the reason why he had reacted as he had. We all gave up so much growing up, we have no, what is it that you call it.”

“Humanity is probably what you’re looking for,” he said to her.

“I used to fight her as a child, every time she won, my father would replace a part of my body with something mechanical, until all that was left of who I was… gone. But all I wanted was for her to be my sister, she kept fighting me no matter what, I had been with him the longest out of all of his children. The Black Order were his disciples but to him they were also his children, but I sometimes wonder, if I was the only one of all of them that was truly his child. I may never know, I don’t even remember my mother.”

They sat there for a long time, the room quiet, a soft hum vibrated through the ship, they didn’t know what to say to one another. They had been thrown into whatever this was by chance and by the will of one mad man hell bent on destroying the universe.

“Who’s flying the ship,” he said after he couldn’t stand the silence any longer.

“It’s on autopilot, we’re too far from any habitable planet, the closest one is half a day’s journey, well it was when you had left me, but I not sure if I would be welcomed there.”

“What did you try to blow it up or something,” he said, meaning for it to be a joke but when she said nothing he knew it was true. “Really, your tried to blow it up.”

“I wanted revenge, on my father, on my sister, on everyone who had forsaken me, and at the time only one being was helping me.”

“You sound like an angry teenager when you put it that way,” he said thinking back to Peter before shaking his head and pushing the thought away. He didn’t have time to mourn, he needed to get home and find a way to defeat Thanos. “Let’s think of a game plan, we may not have to stop there, we’ll know when we get close enough.”

Nebula stood up and walked off towards the front of the ship, he followed her knowing that sleep was too far off from him. He needed his workshop, his bots, his toys, he needed to create something to fix all of this and he wasn’t sure of where to start. Tony didn’t have time to think about anything before a distress signal came through the communications array near the driver’s seat.

“What is that?” he asked walking over and listening in. “What’s happening?”

“We’re near Xandar, and it seems as if they weren’t spared from Thanos’ wrath,” she said as the planet came into view.

Even from thousands of miles away Tony could tell that something was wrong, he didn’t have to think twice about going down there.

“We have to help them,” he said turning his attention towards Nebula who was ready to fly away from the planet.

“You’re hurt, you’re in no condition to help them, they had a stone on that planet, it’s the only reason it’s like that now, we can’t help them,” she said to him ready to fly away as quickly as possible.

“We are going to help them,” he said saying each word carefully, he wasn’t going to abandon a planet just because it would be safer. He didn’t give a damn, all he knew was that they were attacked by the same monster that had attacked him and his own.

“Fine, do what you want, but the moment they attempt to arrest me I will take this ship and leave you there, I don’t give a damn who you are,” she said as she steered the ship towards what seemed to be the area with the most damage.

“How about you start making amends with who you once were,” he said to her as he sat down in the seat next to hers. “Wipe some of the red off your ledger and try to make yourself into a better person.”

“Because people will use you and betray you just to get what they want,” she answered him automatically. “I’m done with others using me.”

“I said the same thing, and you know what I did, I made a suit of armor and worked on helping those I wronged.”

“And look where you are now,” she turned to him anger in her eyes. “Trillions of miles from home and no way back, a madman wiping out half the universe, and those who worked with you are dead.”

“Yeah well, at least I want to try and fix it all because I damn well sure am not going to sit back and let them all die in vain.”

She was silent for the rest of the decent down into what she had called Xandar, he wondered what the planet would have looked like if not for the smoke billowing around them. Everything was on fire, and they were still miles from the surface.


	2. Part Two: Xandar

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Xandar is in ruins, Tony and Nebula find themselves in what was once left of the great city

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Honestly I don't know what I'm doing..... just saying.... I've never written anything like this, half of it is my own wishful thinking, the other is about them getting to know one another. The majority of fanfics I write are contemporary romances for a different fandom (they're posted on ff.net), so writing a space travel adventure is new to me.

“Mommy,” a little girl yelled the moment Tony was out of the ship. “Mommy,” she cried out again but the little girl didn’t move, she was sitting next to a pile of ash on the floor crying out for her mother.

His heart broke as he saw her, automatically walking up to her, he saw that she had skin that was bright pink, her eyes wide and purple, but they were filled with tears as she patted the ground where he was sure that her mother had once stood. The little girl had been spared from death, her mother had not, the worse part of it all was that she had watched her mother fade away into nothingness and he knew it hurt more than anything.

“What are we doing,” Nebula said after following him out of the ship, Tony ignored her sitting next to the little girl.

“We’re here to help you,” he said to the little girl all the while Nebula was kicking something behind him. He knew that Nebula was angry, they had stopped when she thought they shouldn’t have but he wasn’t going to leave anyone defenseless just because she had made the mistake of trusting someone when she had been hellbent on revenge.

“You’re going to get us killed,” Nebula said walking back over to where he was. “We don’t belong here, we can’t help these people.”

“Like hell we can’t,” he said standing up and facing her. “I don’t give a damn what your problem is with helping people, but maybe if you tried you might be able to get pass whatever bullshit you have running through your brain.”

Nebula stood there for a moment, she hadn’t said anything back and Tony was afraid that he had gone too far. Then the little girl took her hand and held onto it while the world around them descended into chaos. They had all lost someone, and while Tony was trying to help, Nebula was pushing everyone away.

“Hi,” he said to the little girl. “My name is Tony, this is Nebula, don’t mind her we’ve been through a lot as I’m sure you have too.” When the little girl nodded, sniffing back tears while holding onto Nebula, Tony continued. “We need to find someone to help you, do you know where you live?”

“Yes,” the little girl whispered before pointing towards a set of buildings at the other end of the city they were in. “But mommy won’t be there,” she said her voice trembling as she looked back down to the ashes on the ground.

It pained him that something like this would happen to a little girl, where she had to watch her mother die right in front of her. He took the girl’s other hand in his and held it there for a moment, he looked up for a moment and saw that Nebula’s face had softened a little because of the little girl but she wouldn’t meet his eyes.

“What’s your name?” he asked the little girl trying to keep her attention away from everything that was happening around them.

“Duranna,” she said before taking her hand back and wiping the tears from her face, “My daddy works in that building over there.” She pointed at a standalone structure at the center of the city, but it was Nebula standing still all of a sudden that had caught his attention.

“What is it?” he said looking up at her before seeing a group headed towards them with weapons at the ready. Tony stood up and looked at the group, not knowing what to call them since they varied in color, and were clearly not human.

“Freeze,” one of them yelled, but they hadn’t moved at all since they had started talking to the little girl. “Put your hands in the air,” the one at the center said.

“Nice to know that somethings don’t change no matter what planet you’re on,” Tony mumbled to himself while putting his hands in the air. Duranna held onto Nebula’s hand, standing behind her so that those in front of her hadn’t see her standing there.

“Nebula, you are an enemy of Xandar,” the man at the center spoke out, the little girl had stepped out in front of Nebula never letting go of her hand. For a moment it felt like the world around them went still as they saw this little girl standing forth protecting these two strangers who had only stopped to check on her.

“Duranna,” the man said before taking off his helmet, revealing someone human looking with curly brown hair, he stood there watching the little girl looking at her in shock. “Where’s your mother?”

Duranna began to cry once again while holding onto Nebula’s hand, Tony kneeled down and began rubbing the little girl’s back hoping that it would soothe her long enough to make whoever these officers were stand down. Nebula stood there stock still not moving, the only indication that she was there mentally was that she had squeezed the little girl’s hand when she began to cry. The man at the center walked towards them, signaling for the others to stand down as he walked forward.

“We are not your enemy,” Nebula said once the man had reached them. “We only came here because we had been on Titan battling my father when he vanished. Right before everyone that had been with us perished.”

The man looked at them as if he knew what had happened just from her words, and Tony wondered just how much these officers knew about what had occurred just hours before they landed on this planet. The others hadn’t taken off their helmets and Tony wondered if they still saw them as a threat even though they hadn’t done anything against them. When the man had reached his daughter, and took her into his arms the little girl began to shake while crying in his arms.

“You can’t arrest us,” Tony said looking at the man, he looked human but he could never be sure with anyone anymore, everyone could be different where they were.

“And why not,” he said looking up at them. “You came down here without proper authorization in a ship that was possibly stolen and according to your friend over here you were fighting the mad titan that had attacked us and made off with one of the most powerful entities in the known universe.”

“Because that madman killed people I cared about and I’m going after him if it’s the last thing I do,” Tony said to him ready to fight his way off the planet if he had to.

“What about her,” the man said to him while looking directly at Nebula.

“She’s with me, and she deserves a second chance just like anyone else, because right now we need all the help we can get if we’re going to fix this clusterfuck,” he knew that he was being blunt with people who had just lost a lot but in the end, there was no other way to handle this without saying it like it is.

“And who are you? Because I’m certain that you’re not from around here,” the man said moving towards Tony.

“My name is Tony Stark, I’m from a planet known as Earth and some giant purple grape just killed my friends,” he said moving forward. “You can help us, or you can stand aside, but you’re not taking her with you no matter what.”

The man nodded at him while assessing the two of them for a moment before holding out his hand, “My name is Rhomann Dey, and I am a Denarian in the Nova Corps.”

“Okay,” Tony said thinking about the unexpected turn of events. He had expected a fight, something to happen, he hadn’t expected for this man to introduce himself.

“Follow us,” Rhomann said before turning away.

Tony knew that Nebula was still hesitant to follow them, hell Tony’s fight or flight response was still on high alert but he needed to trust them, they all needed to trust one another because they wouldn’t get anywhere if they didn’t.

“I’ll follow them if you do,” he said to Nebula, “I’m not going to leave you behind or let them take you, but we need allies, we need an army.”

She didn’t say anything at first before turning towards him and muttering the word “Fine,” before following the man who had introduced himself as Rhomann. Staying silent as she followed them, Tony wasn’t really sure what he had just gotten himself into but he was willing to protect her because they had both lost so much and had nothing else to lose.

Tony found himself looking at everything they passed, it seemed like he was standing in a city that he could only dream about, with technology everywhere. He wondered if this place was peaceful, if everyone had gotten along before Thanos had turned their lives upside down.

“What did he do, because this didn’t come from whatever he had done with that glove of his,” Tony asked Rhomann as they walked towards the building at the center of it all.

“We had what is known as the power stone, stored inside of our headquarters not too long ago, the power stone is one of the six…”

“Yeah Infinity Stones, we’ve seen them in action,” Tony interrupted he didn’t want to relive anything about these stones anytime soon. He still had an attack to plan.

Rhomann assessed him for a moment before continuing, “Yes well when Thanos found out that we had it him and his children came to claim it, let’s just say that it didn’t end very well for us.”

“When you go up against a madman you need to have a contingency plan,” Tony said out loud. “How many people were on this planet before the ashes flew around you?”

“Well over twelve billion, from the looks of it we have been reduced greatly,” he answered and Tony could tell that the stones weren’t the only reason that they had lost many.

Tony could only think of what Thanos had done, if there had been twelve billion on this planet, and trillions more across the universe, the amount of those who perished would be more than any war known to man, or any entity in the whole nine realms as Thor would describe it.

“The ship you’re flying belongs to the Guardians of the Galaxy,” Rhomann said stopping in front of Tony. “What happened to them?”

“Thanos killed my sister for one of the stones, the rest perished when he completed his mission,” Nebula said, and Tony could swear that if she could have cried she would have, instead she schooled her features and looked out into the distance.

“And what are your plans now that you’re here?”

“If you can give us any kind of help, tools, food, whatever we need to make it back to Earth I would be very grateful,” Tony answered, his mission at the moment was to get home and rebuild his armor. “I need to know what happened to my people.”

Rhomann nodded and led them into the structure, for a moment Tony was sure that they were going to be arrested as more officers showed up but they were brought into what looked like an advanced conference room and told to wait for a moment. Neither Tony nor Nebula said a word, the both of them sat there and stared at the walls. It took Tony five seconds before he was standing up and looking into the circuits that were housed under the monitors. Nebula hadn’t said anything she just looked at him as he tried to understand what made everything tick.

A few minutes had passed before Tony heard Nebula even sigh, “Why would you defend me to these people?”

“Because a long time ago someone told me not to waste my life,” he said to her remembering Yinsen and his final words. “I got a second chance so why can’t you.”

“What could you have done in your life that could have been worse than what I have done?” she asked him and he pulled his head out of the machinery to look at her for a moment.

“Before I got my suit of armor, I used to make weapons, the kind that could decimate entire cities, but I had created them thinking that they were going to be used for good, to help people. I was too busy being someone who only thought of themselves to look at what my weapons were doing to other people,” he sighed to himself wondering if he was telling this in a way that made sense. They came from two different worlds, literally. “I hadn’t even known that someone was using what I created to give to the enemies of those I thought they were supposed to protect. When everything backfired and I learned the truth, I realized that I needed to change my life and make amends for the lives that my weapons had taken, even if I hadn’t been the one to fire the weapon.”

“So, you’re telling me that even though I’ve caused harm towards others,” she started but he interrupted her.

“You can change your life as much as I’ve changed mine,” he said smiling at her. “Don’t waste this chance, give them a chance to see you as a hero and not a villain.”

She grunted in response before turning her attention to the window, watching the world outside burn because of what Thanos had done. Tony went back to studying the machinery, he needed the distraction to keep away the memories of what had happened. He couldn’t afford to breakdown just yet, he needed to avenge his friends and his world.

“Most people would ask before they started tearing things apart,” a woman’s voice said making Tony hit his head against the edge of the console. “I am Nova Prime Irani Rael, I am the head of what’s left of the Nova Corps.”

“There’s not much left,” Nebula said her face not betraying any kind of emotion.

“You’re right Nebula, your father’s actions did this to my people,” the woman said and for the first time Tony saw Nebula flinch at the words.

Before Nebula could say anything, Tony jumped up and stood between the two. “Even if that purple raisin was her father, she doesn’t affiliate with him. If you don’t want us here we will be glad to leave as soon as possible, we only came here because of the distress call that we heard.”

“There’s not much you can do for my people,” Nova Prime said. “The damage has already been done, but maybe there is something we can do for you according to Rhomann.”

“There’s a lot of things you can do for us, one of which is helping us get to Earth, the other is helping us find a way to reverse all of this destruction.”

“I can help you get back to your planet, all it would take is a few jumps through space, the other thing in which you speak will be impossible, I don’t doubt that there is a way but it’s not one that we have access to here on Xandar,” she said looking towards the console that Tony had been trying to look into. “We have shown you both mercy because you said you had fought against Thanos, but if you want our aid you must be willing to bargain with us.”

“I bargain with no one,” Nebula said standing up from where she had sat down, Tony knew that he had to work on that girl’s people skills but it would take some time.

“Ignore her for a moment,” he said taking the attention away from Nebula. “What is it that you want.”

“For my people to have a chance to fight against Thanos,” Nova Prime said to him and he knew that there was a similar pattern to what they were all thinking. They wanted to avenge those who had died for no reason other than for Thanos to apparently obliterate half the universe. “We were attacked trying to keep something from him, and because we couldn’t hold our own against him, the people of this world suffered.”

“Well, you have my attention,” Tony said looking the woman in the eye. “We need to find out where he went after he did whatever he did.”

“I know where he could possibly go,” Nebula said looking Nova Prime in the eye for the first time. “There’s only a handful of places, especially if the black order is with him.”

“Okay we’ll map those out, what do we need next,” he said looking between them, his mind working through suit repairs and upgrades that they may have to do before they even attempt what they’re talking about.

“You need an army,” Nova Prime said. “One that’s willing to fight for a cause they believe in.”

“I don’t know,” he said thinking of his home, of the Avengers. “I don’t know who from my side is still alive.”

“That’s where I think we could come in,” Rhomann said walking in with his daughter still in his arms. “I’m willing to follow you if you’re willing to lead us.”

“You don’t even know me,” Tony answered him. “I’m an outsider here.”

“If you went head to head with Thanos and lived as you say then you have the power to lead a team,” Rhomann said and it made Tony think back to his team, he had never been the lead, co-leader at best, but every battle decision had been up to Steve, to Captain America.

“I’ll do it,” he said after thinking about it, he worked with the best strategist he could do this if he worked hard enough at it. “But we need to upgrade my armor, and possibly the ship we’ll be using.”

“We’ll use Quill’s ship,” Nebula said to the room. “If the tree or the racoon survived, they’ll recognize the ship making this plan easier to execute.”

“What do you mean by the tree and the racoon?” Tony asked confused even though everyone else in the room seemed to know what she was talking about.

“There’s something about that we should probably discuss, but after the fight with Ronan, well we hadn’t expected the pieces of the Flora colossus so plant themselves into the ground,” Rhomann said to the room, Tony was still confused about what was happening. “It seems that once in the ground they continued to grow, and while some have stayed on Xandar others have returned to their home world.”

“I’m sorry, can someone please explain to me what is happening,” Tony said looking between the three of them trying to understand what they were saying.

“The Guardians traveled with a species that is basically the equivalent of a walking, talking tree,” Nebula said to him before turning her attention back to the group. “Is there one that we can take with us?”

“My daughter and I have one with us, he’s one of the only ones who had stayed behind but we can communicate with him,” Rhomann said to them and all Tony could think about was the fact that apparently there was a living, breathing, walking tree out there.

At that moment he wished he was still at home in his workshop tinkering on anything at this point and not in another star system talking about a freaking tree that could talk. He ended up missing half of the conversation trying to figure out the dynamics of a talking tree and how Bruce might be able to figure out how it was possible. Nebula poked him with her metal arm to get him to pay attention to what was happening.

“This is what I think we should do,” Tony said focusing his attention on planning his way back to Earth before they set out to find Thanos. “I need to upgrade my armor so that it works, the battle with Thanos took a toll on it, we should also upgrade the ship if we’re going to be traveling with more people, at this point I think it needs to be able to fit at least fifty of us, but we also need it to have a communications array that would make it possible for us to coordinate across the universe so that when we call you’ll be able to answer.”

He was running a million different plans through his head but he knew that there had to be one way for everyone to get together no matter how far they were from one another.

“We’ll take a small crew from here with us, but we have to be prepared to pick up others along the way,” he added thinking that if they made stops even for supplies there was a chance that they would pick up more people that knew someone he was linked to. “We also need a mapping system on board so that whoever follows us later on will be able to take the same route we did.”

He wondered if it would be possible to add an adaptive A.I. into the ship one that would eventually be able to connect to FRIDAY, when he returned to Earth. The battle with Thanos was hard enough without his right-hand girl in his ear helping him out. He started running equations of things he needed to do, of the code he needed to run just to put an A.I. on the ship.

“I need parts,” he said to himself not realizing that he said it out loud. While continuing to run the code in his head, there’s also the fact that he needed his suit to be as strong as Steve’s shield or at least find out what Thanos made that glove out of because it was one very strong alloy if it could withstand the stones.

“You’re mumbling to yourself,” Nebula said pulling him back into the room.

“Sorry my mind works a little fast, especially when I get an idea in my head,” he said to them. “Right now I’m running a million different things through my head, like ship repairs which means I need blueprints, the repairs to my suit, finding an alloy for my suit that would be able to stand against Thanos and his magic glove, adding artificial intelligence to the ship, maybe upgrading Nebula’s arm if she lets me, what we need for the communications array and the fact that I should probably have someone check on this wound right here,” he said pointing at the stab wound on his stomach which had started to bleed again. He hadn’t paid attention when he was looking at the wiring for the console or when he had been running a million things through his own mind, but now what had once been a dull ache had turned into a full-blown pain as the blood began to seep through his clothes.

 

* * *

 

When he woke up it felt as if hours had passed, he was in a white room on a bed with tubes sticking out of his body. “Hospital,” he said out loud.

“More like a med bay,” Nebula said from behind him. “I can keep calling you an idiot but I’m sure that you’re not going to listen to me.”

“You learn fast there,” he said as he sunk into the pillow. “I usually don’t listen to a lot of people, and when I do well I guess it all ends in disaster anyway.”

She sighed and walked out in front of the bed, crossing her arms in front of herself. “So, you want to upgrade my arm?”

He knew that she was changing the subject giving him something to think about other than the fact that he’s passed out twice now from a wound inflicted by her own father. He didn’t mind the change of subject, he liked thinking about too many things all at once, because it gave him the chance to keep his mind off of thing that hurt him the most.

“I can try,” he said thinking back to Barnes’ and his metal arm, although he had been angry with Steve, but in the end killing the winter soldier wasn’t going to change the past. So, he worked on what had remained of the arm after they had left him behind, he wanted to make amends as much as he was sure that Steve wanted to make amends with him. If he was still alive.

“For now, let’s work on the ship and what we need, if I trust you enough not to hurt me in the end I’ll allow you to help me with my arm,” she said to him, her face serious she never smiles even though he does.

“Okay,” he said clapping his hands together. He was about to get up before realizing he doesn’t understand the machinery in this place, and he has no tools like the ones he had back at home. “Uh… is there a way to get things that are made on Earth all the way out here?”

“I don’t know,” she said before standing closer to the door. “Maybe in Knowhere, there are Ravagers collect all kinds of things and sell them there.”

“Another stop on this trip,” he said looking around wondering how long it would really take to get back to Earth. “How far is it from here?”

“If we turn on the hyperdrive on the ship it shouldn’t be very far from here,” she said, he knows to trust her because she’s trusting him.

“Let’s do what we can while we’re here, at the most we can get the ship ready, and possibly recruit some of the people to join us. The communications array has to be done before we leave, and I need a tablet to work on,” he starts mumbling to himself the things that they need to do, Nebula just looks at him, as if she understands to leave him be until he’s done with his train of thought. They’ve only known one another for a day and she already understands his mannerisms.

Once he was told that he was healed, alien technology was something to be marveled at but it was also something he wish that he could have Bruce take a look at because he wasn’t that kind of doctor, neither was Bruce but at least his friend had more training in that area than he did.

Nebula helped him understand the tech from Xandar, as well as the tools and somehow even got him a tablet to work on while he was tinkering on the ship. He did start on the adaptive A.I. the moment he got his hands on the guts of the ship, they called it the Benatar, and the name alone made Tony laugh because all he could hear was _Love is a Battlefield_ in his head as he worked on it. It took them three days of non-stop work before they were finished with the addition which would add room for at least fifty extra passengers to go with them. Nova Prime gave them ten from her remaining forces, the communications array was the final thing to be outfitted on the ship, so that they would have the ability to communicate with Xandar, while also helping them send out a call to other planets for aid in their final battle.

The A.I. was a basic version of FRIDAY’s programing, it was still in the suit just not active because he wasn’t attached to the Stark satellites near Earth, but once those were fitted with the array. He still needed his own tools, they had made an area on the ship for him to work on his tech, especially on his armor but he couldn’t get it to work properly and it was frustrating him to no end trying to find a way to get it up and running completely. It was like missing an arm, the phantom pain was there he could feel it but it wasn’t there and he wondered if it would ever be there again.

They were getting ready to leave, on their fourth day, Rhomann and his daughter were going to come along, the man was afraid of leaving her, and after the memory of Peter fading in his hands, Tony understood wholeheartedly. They were joined by a moving walking freaking tree.

“Fuck I wasn’t expecting that,” Tony had said once the tree was in front of them.

“I am Groot,” the tree said and all Tony could do was nod at it, because he wasn’t sure if it was real of if he was still in the med bay bleeding out, hallucinating that there was a tree in front of him.

“You see that too right,” he said to Nebula because for some reason she was the most real thing he had in his life. “I’m not imagining a walking tree right.”

“It’s real,” she said before walking off into the ship. They had decided that while he was leading this crazy mission she was going to be the pilot and captain of the ship.

“I am Groot,” the tree said and Tony couldn’t figure out if that was all it could say or if he was tripping on acid like when he was back in MIT and had decided to experiment on drugs. The tree walked into the ship followed by the ten members of the Nova Corps.

“Don’t worry you get used to it,” Rhomann said to him before taking his daughter’s hand and walking into the ship.

“So that’s really a walking talking tree,” he said following the father and daughter. “So, when you guys mentioned a racoon does that mean that there’s a freaking racoon somewhere?”

“If he’s still alive after what we just witnessed then yes there is,” Rhomann answered and Tony could only think to laugh at that.

“This is my life now isn’t it,” he said to himself before walking onto the ship.

The next stop according to Nebula was a place called Knowhere which is supposed to be the head of some kind of celestial avatar. She had told him that it was a mining colony, that made him wonder if there was an alloy there that was strong enough for him to use on his armor. He wouldn’t know for sure until they got there, but it was on its way to their final destination so he was going to take a chance.

Tony walked into the flight deck and took his seat next to Nebula, “Aye, Aye, Captain, let’s get this ship into the open air and get to Knowhere.”

“Don’t turn into Quill and start making references to things that no one understands,” she said to him before starting the ship.

“But then I won’t have any fun,” he said smiling at her before starting the engine. “I can make references, or you can spend the trip teaching me how to fly this thing.”

She looked at him and nodded, “If you want to learn to fly it, I will teach you as long as you don’t become insufferable.”

“I’ll try but I make no guarantees on that front, you would need a tenth-degree black belt and a case of scotch to be able to tolerate me.”

For a second he could have sworn that he had seen her lips twitch and he wanted to say something, but he held back. She was beginning to trust him and he wasn’t going to make her stop, he needed a friend near him and she was slowly becoming an ally.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Duranna is Rhomann Dey's daughter in the 616 universe, his daughter in the MCU doesn't have a name so I gave her the name of his daughter from the comics.
> 
> Also I used one of Nat's lines from Avengers Assemble in this story, because I was watching it while writing this chapter. (oops!)
> 
> Also I have this weird headcannon that the broken pieces of Groot from the first Guardians movie ended up planting a bunch of him all over Xandar, so there's more of him out there.... hence they have another Groot (because damn it Marvel can't take him away from me too)


	3. Part Three: Knowhere

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They made it to Knowhere, one more step in their journey across the universe, only to find some unlikely allies.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I still have no clue what I'm doing but at least the story is moving along.... Seriously I don't know if any of this story makes sense but I'm gathering forces and finding my way home ~Tony Stark

There was something about floating around in space in a ship you had no idea how it handled that put Tony on edge. Even with a workshop type room where he was tinkering away on his suit, or when he was eating with the small group from Xandar, or when Nebula was teaching him how to fly the ship. The last day had been a trial period for him, and he couldn’t figure out why. He was getting monster headaches, he couldn’t sleep very well because of the nightmares, and he swore his food had tentacles, but not in a this is a squid kind of way but more like in the kind where they tried to kidnap you like in one of those hentai movies that Barton had shown Thor while they were hunting down Hydra bases.

“I miss coffee,” he mumbled to himself while he put together another piece of the A.I.’s code, it was working very well and some of the Xandarians were teaching it other languages. The tree that they’ve told him to call Groot, was teaching it it’s native language, and Tony taught it every language he could speak.

It took him a full five minutes before he realized that his problem was the lack of coffee, he was going through withdrawal and there was no substitute for his favorite black drink.

“Fucking coffee,” he yelled out to himself. “That’s what this is all about, fuck,” he screamed out to no one, since he’s alone in the room.

Ever since they got on the ship the memories of the last few days haunted him, he slept as little as possible because the nightmares of watching the people he cared for turn to ash woke him up. His best friends being too far away from him before losing them forever, it was hard enough when he dreamed of them both falling and he couldn’t catch them but this was worse. Then there was Peter, who died in his hands, even after several showers the feeling of the kid’s body fading in his hands haunted him. The last dream he had had were the ones of Steve grabbing him and telling him that he could have done more before turning to ash under him. He had woken up screaming after that one, the reminders of Ultron and the heavy thoughts that the A.I. was never truly gone.

He looked up at the containers that carried the ashes of those who had faded on Titan and swore to himself that he would find a way to fix all of this. He needed to fix this because it’s what he did, and if he couldn’t he wouldn’t know what to do.

He could try to sleep now, but it was impossible, even without coffee he was wide awake because of the nightmares. He stared at the lines of code one last time before sighing to himself and getting up to leave his little workshop, heading towards where Nebula was flying the ship. He had tried to talk to her about how she was feeling but she was closed off in many ways, he understood that it took a lot of time to trust, especially strangers, and he had hoped that at some point she would learn to trust him a little bit more.

As he reached the front of the ship he saw Groot and Duranna sitting nearby playing a game of checkers that Tony had found in the ship. The little girl liked Nebula and Tony was happy that someone was getting close to her instead of shying away the moment someone got near her. It was something else that Tony had noticed, how much Nebula craved closeness but didn’t initiate it, he was the same way, they both wanted a family of some kind but they’re were more afraid of messing it up. He knew that she missed her sister, the one person that Nebula probably thought would tolerate her, but Tony wanted to make sure that by the end of this she would have found friends in the say way he had over the years. People who understood her for herself and not for what she had once been.

“Hey,” he said before sitting down in the seat next to her. “How much longer until we’re there?”

She looked over at him, probably annoyed that he had asked her for what was the fifth time, but he wasn’t meant to fly in space without someone to annoy and they should understand that now before it was too late.

“We’ll be there soon,” she said to him before turning her head back towards the galaxy in front of them.

“How soon is soon?” he asks just to see if it would get a rise out of her, he was attempting to get her to show some kind of emotion, at least one that wasn’t glaring, or giving him the stink eye. If Nebula and Rhodey were in a room together and he said something inappropriate he could just imagine getting identical looks from the both of them.

The thought of Rhodey hurt him, even though it sounded fun thinking of all the ways to bring his whole world into the one he was currently living, he didn’t know the fate of his friend and brother, all he could think about were ashes floating in the air and he didn’t want to remember his best friend that way.

“It’s just over that moon over there,” she pointed out to him and he put his attention towards the stars and planets around them.

“Sorry if I’m asking too many questions, but I have a curious mind, or at least that’s what Jarvis used to tell me,” he said to her trying to force his attention from his own thoughts.

“It’s understandable since you’re not from the same world I’m from,” she said to him, and he knew that she was trying to find a middle ground for the first time in their relationship, he wanted to find one too.

“And you’re not from the same one that I’m from, but I think we could get along as long as we’re honest about everything,” he wanted nothing but honesty from people from now on, that way there wouldn’t be any misunderstanding, or fights to the death.

Nebula nodded before focusing her attention on flying the ship, Tony kept an eye out wanting to know what a place called Knowhere would look like. When they had passed the moon, she had told him about he wasn’t sure he could have understood even if they had described it to him in every detail possible. It really looked like the head of some kind of monster, and they were flying into what looked like the eye of the giant.

From the looks of it the place had been attacked recently, and it was a brutal attack at that, he could see flames still raging in every corner of the place.

“My father has been here,” Nebula said out loud, it was a fact to her and Tony knew to expect the worse when they left the ship.

“Duranna should stay here,” Tony said once they were docked. “There should only be about five of us out there, the rest should stay on the ship and stay on guard in case of any attacks.”

He wasn’t sure if this was the right thing to do, separating them could be a horrible idea, but he was thinking about the safety of those who were going to stay with them. He wanted to make sure that nothing would happen to them, he didn’t want to make any mistakes that would cost any of them their lives at this point. Nebula joined him automatically, it was only a recovery mission, they needed tools and supplies that would help them and that is all.

“We’ll stick together,” Tony said as Rhomann joined them as well as two of the Nova Corps members taking the rear as Tony and Nebula took the front of their small team. “Where should we go?” he asked as they walked forward.

“The Collectors place should have what you need,” Nebula said as they walked forward, Duranna waving at them from the ship as hatch doors closed to keep her safe, Groot by her side.

As they walked forward Tony couldn’t help but look around, on the outside the place looked dark and desolate, on the inside he could imagine that it had been alive with people once. Kids running around, people trading things, it looked like a place where business took place. Now it was just blackened, fires raging in all corners of the colony, the center fountain bubbling with some kind of yellow substance he wished he could have taken for Bruce to study. As they reached their destination he heard the sound of something moving nearby, like a can in an alley way before someone came out and attacked you.

 Nebula stopped moving forward, raising her gun looking around, she probably knew better than him what kind of place Knowhere had once been, and if there was a noise somewhere after the destruction that had been caused by Thanos they were never going to be safe. She looked over to him before pointing at what looked like a side street, he nodded knowing that they were going to have to investigate so that they weren’t take by surprise. Tony motioned for everyone to stay as quiet as possible, and pointed out that they should go two at a time, Nebula moved forward before jumping on the roof of one of the nearby buildings. They were lucky that she hadn’t made a single noise when she had landed, while Tony and Rhomann walked towards one side of the building, while the last two of their group ducked behind the fountain in case they needed to cover them.

They waited a moment to see if whoever it was would come out and jump on them, Tony could hear someone breathing, but he wasn’t sure if it was Rhomann or whoever it was that was there. Tony waited until he heard someone grunt before he saw Nebula jump down and land on them without hesitating. Tony raised his weapon at them only to come face to face with a group eight people standing in front of them, all of them had weapons trained on Nebula. Tony knew that they were outnumbered.

“We’re not here to attack you,” he said slowly raising his hands, “We just need to pick up some supplies and then we’ll be on our way.”

“Well that’s nice,” the person on the floor said some kind of mohawk on his head. “You know what else would be nice, if your friend here would get off my back before my friends kill her.”

“Kraglin,” Nebula said to the man on the floor.

The guy looked up and smiled, “Oh Nebula that’s you,” he said before she kicked him and walked away. “I haven’t seen you since, well since that time after Quill’s father tried to kill you all.”

“Yeah well this is nice,” Tony said putting his gun back in its holster. “But we need to get our supplies and get out of here.” He was tired and he knew he shouldn’t antagonize anyone who outnumbered them but he really needed to get back to Earth.

“Sorry man, but even though I know her I can’t willingly let you plunder anything from this place. We need it all,” Kraglin said as the group around him took off their hoods. They all looked different and he wasn’t sure where any of them came from and he didn’t care.

“Listen here,” Tony said walking straight for the man. “I just watched a lot of people die in front of me and I couldn’t give two shits about what you think, all I know is that I’m going to get what I need get back to my planet and find a way to kill Thanos.”

Another person stepped out from the darkened street, their hood still firmly on their heads, “It seems as if we have the same goal,” the voice said, it was a woman’s voice and it seemed as if she was the leader of the group because the moment she spoke they all stood at attention.

“What’s it to you,” Tony said before Nebula nudged him with her leg, he looked over to her and she shook her head, but he didn’t care anymore he probably needed to sleep, but he also needed his suit, he needed someone that was normal and comfortable.

“We all want to kill Thanos,” the woman said to him before taking off her hood. “He killed everyone that was left of my people,” she walked forward to him and Tony came face to face with a brunette he could have sworn that he had seen before, but he couldn’t pinpoint from where. “With a snap of his fingers he wiped out half of the universe, he doesn’t care about any of us.”

Kraglin finally stood up from the floor and looked over at them before smiling when he saw Rhomann, “Hey I know you,” he said. “I feel like Quill and the rest of the guardians are going to pop up, where are they hiding.”

Nebula stiffened next to Tony, and Tony couldn’t help but look at his hands, there wasn’t any ashes on them, but he remembered the look on Quill’s face before he faded.

“The guardians are all gone,” Nebula said and Tony knew that it pained her to say it. “Thanos killed my sister, and the rest turned to ash, though I’m not sure about the raccoon and the tree.’

Kraglin looked at them, Tony nodded, “I saw it myself,” he said wishing that he could shower again because it felt as if the ashes were once again on his skin.

“Who are you?” Kraglin said looking directly at him. “You’re not from around here and I know it.”

“He’s terran,” Rhomann said and Kraglin looked surprised.

“Like Quill?” They all nodded at his statement, looking at Tony like he was something they had only seen in a museum.

The woman who had spoken before walked forward, “What is it that you all need?” she asked not questioning their motives, almost as if she understood something that no one else would understand.

In Tony’s mind he knew he had found another ally, but he didn’t know if this was a good thing or a bad thing because he wasn’t sure of these people just yet. He knew he should trust them, they had all lost something one way or another.

“Tools like the ones from Earth, possibly some kind of alloy,” he said looking at the group, their gazes were making him uncomfortable. “I need to repair my suit, and anything else you can give us, we have space on our ship for more passengers if you want to join us.”

“So, you want us to give you resources, and then you ask us to join you on your quest,” the woman said to him, slowly moving until they were face to face. As she got closer to him he could feel his heart beating faster, he wasn’t sure if she was going to attack him. “This sounds like something we could do.”

Nebula nodded at him after the other woman had walked off towards their original destination, apparently some person named the collector and whatever he had could hold what he needed. He stayed close to Nebula as everyone walked forward, Rhomann walking in step with the other woman in their group. Tony wasn’t sure if they would join them, he wasn’t sure of anything, but he was happy that they were still alive which worked for him.

“Do you trust them,” he asked Nebula as they moved forward.

“I know him, he was the one who gave me this arm and a ship when I had needed one,” she said not answering his question.

“You’re Asgardian,” Rhomann said and Tony stopped for a moment and looked over at the other woman. No one said anything, until she had nodded and continued to walk, the feeling of knowing who she was still irked Tony but he wasn’t going to push anything just yet. He wondered if the woman knew Thor and if she knew what had happened to him, Bruce had only given him the barest details about what he had remembered.

Once inside of the half-burnt building, Tony could see that whatever it had been that Thanos had been after, it was once store right where they were standing. Too much was torn to pieces, debris everywhere, but a lot of things were still intact which meant that whoever this collector had been, hadn’t survived to protect what was left, and no one wanted what he collected.

Tony walked forward looking through the things that hadn’t been burnt to the ground, digging around for something that was familiar, something useful to him. Everyone else had stayed behind, digging for other things, if they joined him on this trip it would be a miracle, he knew it would take time to convince them, and time was something he didn’t have. He found himself in a corner of the room staring at a familiar piece of metal in a glass case, one of the many things that had survived the ruins, turning to the other side he saw some kind of rock, and wondered what it would do to the suit if he combined both of them.

“Have you found anything?” Nebula asked and he nodded looking at the metals.

“Still haven’t found tools but I think we could use these things to repair my suit and possibly make it more resistant to whatever Thanos has.”

He stared at the unused hunk of vibranium and wondered how this place had such a big piece of it. Most of what he knew about it had been in his father’s notes, or what he had learned in the short time he had spoken with T’Challa. The metal itself had come to earth as an asteroid of some kind, but he hadn’t had the chance to examine anything in regards to it because Wakanda had been closed off from the world and even when the borders had opened, the metal had been a closely guarded secret.

The suit would have to be repaired while they were in Knowhere, but it wouldn’t be fully functional until he had a chance to get into the guts of the machine afterwards. For now, he was happy knowing that he would have at least fixed the exterior. Nebula helped him dig around while the others all talked, the woman the Asgardian, didn’t say a word to anyone, but she watched them as if she was assessing them. It made him feel weird to be looked at like that but he couldn’t care, all he wanted was his suit, the one bit of normal in his life.

“Is this what you’re looking for,” Nebula said pulling out what looked like a huge tool box, Tony could kiss her, but he knew it would just end with him buried six feet under so he smiled at her before taking the box and digging through it. There was a soldering iron in the box, and all kinds of screwdrivers, and most of all none of it had rusted.

“You’re an angel Neb,” he said not realizing that she had stood still the moment he had shortened her name. He had almost missed the smile on her face, but she had quickly schooled her features right after. He guessed that no one gave her a nickname or even shorten her name before, but it was also one more moment where she began to open up to him. “Alright Cyborg Princess,” he said smiling at her. “Let’s get to work.”

Nebula looked at him funny, she didn’t smile, but she got to work alongside him, as they pulled the vibranium out of the glass case, and anything else they could get their hands on. Pulling it all somewhere that he could use it to repair the suit. Without his equipment, and his girl FRIDAY he had to do everything by hand. Nebula following his lead. They had brought the piece of the suit from the ship and set up shop in the middle of the Collector’s museum as Tony started calling it. Rhomann worked on convincing the others to join them, while Groot, or Groot two as Kraglin started calling him, brought Duranna out to play in the open areas of Knowhere.

“Do you know what you’re doing?” Nebula asked as he began melting the metal before starting the process of bonding it to the nano particles of the suit.

“Most of the time yes, but I also had a whole room full of equipment to help me,” he said while shrugging his shoulders. “Right now, I’m working with what I can, and with you helping me it can work. I know you work on your cybernetic parts on your own.”

“I’m not very good at it or else some of the joints wouldn’t stick,” she said to him but he smiled back at her.

“You actually volunteered information, kudos to you,” he said with a smile. “How about when I’m done with this we make use of the rest of the metal and fix your arm, make so that it won’t stick.”

“Can you teach me how to fix it properly?” she asked and for the first time it felt like they were really getting to the point where they could be friends.

“I can teach you,” he said smiling at her. For some reason it felt like teaching Peter about the suit, or when he had helped Harley all those years ago, or Vision when he had wanted to understand humanity better.

It took them almost two days before the suit was functional again, even activating a baseline part of FRIDAY’s programing so that she was in his ear. Testing it out for the first time felt like being home as the suit formed itself around him. He flew around for ten minutes testing the thrusters, making sure the repulsors worked properly. It didn’t have the missiles or anything but the particles had bonded and he had never felt such joy.

After he finished he made sure to take some pieces of the metal and have it ready to put together new parts for Nebula’s arm, as well as having spares for anything else they would need in the future. Rhomann had used the time to convince the others to join them, the woman who he hadn’t spoken with since that first day had agreed automatically but had told the others that it was their choice to go or to stay. They all agreed to go because there was nothing they could do on Knowhere, the colony wasn’t empty but the survivors would eventually come out, the place would thrive once again as long as those who lived kept working.

“Good work Iron Man,” the woman said making his head spin, no one had called him that, none of them knew about his life on Earth so it was surprising to hear his codename being said by someone he had never met.

“I’m guessing you know Thor,” he said to her and when she nodded he was relieved to have at least another person who was close to those he knew.

“I’ve been on Earth, I had tried to go back home but was promptly banish for certain reason, honestly I am glad for it because it meant I was to survive for a reason, so I will aid you in your conquest if it meant that there was a chance to find others who still live.”

“Can I know who you are because honestly I don’t know if I should give you a nickname or not, I mean I like my balls where they are thank you very much.”

“I am Lady Sif,” she said holding out her hand. “Also known as the goddess of war, and a friend of Earth.”

That’s when everything clicked into place, Thor had once asked about taking photos from his home and keeping them in his room, so Tony had given him a camera that he was sure the god could handle without breaking it. A few weeks later he had printed the photos for his friend and in them was a picture of three men and one woman all in full battle gear. He looked back at her and knew that she was an ally he was glad to have found.

When everyone had boarded the ship and they were well on their way, Tony was sure that they were going to be able to do something to change what had happened, or at least to find a way to fight Thanos. Kraglin was in the pilot seat as Tony worked on Nebula’s arm during the next stretch of their journey, they didn’t know where their next stop would be, they weren’t sure how long it would take to get to Earth. With only twenty people on board the ship and everyone working together Tony was sure that by the time they did get there, they were going to be a strong group of fighters.

Nebula had been sitting next to him as he told her about the components of her arm, asking how much feeling she wanted them to have when they hit turbulence. One minute they were fine the next the ship began shaking, they didn’t have enough to time get to the flight deck before crash landing on a planet, that looked like a giant trash heap.

“Where the fuck are we,” he said before a group of masked people stood in front of the ship guns trained on them. “Shit.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Cyborg Princess reference for Nebula is me referencing the Lunar Chronicles but Marissa Meyer, where the main character of the series is a Cyborg Princess. Also I love the books so I thought it kind of fit in a weird way.
> 
> Did you know that in 616 Sif is Heimdall's sister??
> 
> Can you guess where they landed????


	4. Part Four: Sakaar

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's so much going on in this, and honestly I didn't double check it because I was being lazy.... (I just finished the semester, along with a final paper writing binge that ended in me crashing so hard and sleeping more than 12 hours) I don't know if it's any good but I hope you enjoy it.
> 
> Also this part has my favorite line in the whole story!!!!

One of their attackers tried to shoot out the front window, good thing they had been reinforced before they had left Xandar because Tony wasn’t sure what kind of weapons people used. Nebula’s arm was still in his hand half done and he wasn’t going to let her go out there without it being finished.

“Can someone please deal with them,” Tony said looking around before the doors opened and a group led by Sif walked over and tried to talk to them. They watched them go before he turned his attention back to Nebula’s arm. “Let me finish putting this back together and you can go kick their asses if you want.”

He started working on her arm, concentrating when all of a sudden, he heard their ambushers screaming. He had learned a long time ago not to cross women warriors, he blamed Pepper, Nat, Maria Hill and Laura Barton for that, and that extended to the women who had joined them so far because they were fierce creatures. As he finished with Nebula’s arm he double checked the joints, everything was fixed so it wouldn’t stick, and hopefully with the new materials it wouldn’t break as easily either.

“You’re good to go,” he said scratching his beard with the screw driver. He missed using his razor, he missed his goatee, he missed long showers and coffee. But he did enjoy getting to know everyone he has met while on the trip, he thought about how Peter and Nebula would get along like two siblings ready to kill one another.

“Don’t think too much,” she said as she flexed her arm before nodding at him. She was getting to know him better, and lately they were talking more. Never about personal things, but about what people did for entertainment, or languages, she told him about a star system, he told her about fairy tales. It was weird in so many ways but it was nice to have someone to talk to, especially when they all thought that they were in this alone.

“How do you think they’re doing out there?” he said looking back towards the windshield, there hadn’t been a noise of any kind in a while which meant that either the people who had tried to attack them had fled or Sif had killed them all, which in a time like this wasn’t very helpful for their cause.

Before Nebula could answer the lady in question had walked in and nodded, “They’re all alive, I only tied them up,” she said before walking off towards the side where they kept the weapons stored.

“She’s a mind reader I swear,” he said smiling at Nebula while scratching his beard. “Anyway, where are we?”

“Sakaar,” Kraglin said as he walked in after Sif. “This place has portals that lead in but most just stay here because they think it’s too dangerous to get out.”

“Portals,” Tony said his eyebrows raised as he got up and looked out the window, seeing dozens of portals spilling all kinds of things out of them. Things that he could use to upgrade the ship, his suit and a million other things, but he also realized that one of those portals would take them to Earth, to his family, or what was left of them.

Nebula stared at him before shaking her head, “I know what you’re thinking, and while going through one of those would get us to where we need to go, we don’t know which one to go through.”

“Not yet anyway,” he smiled at her before moving towards the back, he had made a pair of gauntlets for his arms and boots for his legs, just so he wouldn’t have to activate the suit. Anything to make the journey easier on himself and those who had joined him, he’s upgraded weapons for some or created a number of things while they moved forward. He even made toys for Duranna, a device for Groot to be able to talk to him since he still couldn’t understand the walking teenage tree, and new weapons for Nebula, ones that would be readily accessible for her at a moment’s notice.

He had done the same thing for the Avengers, and he had realized long afterwards that it hurt more now because there were times when he had done it to keep them safe and in the end, he couldn’t even do that right. But it didn’t stop him from trying to keep his new friends safe, he didn’t want to lose anyone else and he wanted to try his best to bring everyone else back.

The crew stood by the ramp that led out, everyone was looking at the place they had landed trying to figure out what was happening. Some of them knew where they were but still couldn’t understand how they had gotten there, Tony didn’t understand it either but they were at a place where they had the chance of getting to Earth faster.

“Okay let’s go exploring,” he said as he opened the back hatch. “If you’re going out make sure to get back before sundown… whenever that is, try and find any kind of supplies, food, whatever we need, I’m going to explore but also try and figure out which portal we need to go through.”

“How are you going to figure that out?” Nebula said as everyone walked away from them. Duranna and her father staying behind with a few of the Xandarians so that they could keep an eye on the ship.

“I don’t know but I guess the best way to find out is to find someone who’s familiar with the place,” he said looking around. “The other option is to study what falls out of them but there’s too much work there and there’s a chance that they could pick up debris from other places on the way here.”

Nebula nodded before following him out, she still wasn’t comfortable being alone around everyone else, no matter how long they had been in the ship for it hadn’t mattered she was still scared that they had seen her as nothing but the daughter of the man who had caused all of their pain. Tony and Duranna were the only ones who had been able to stay close to her without her retreating into herself. It reminded him of Wanda that first year after Ultron, after the loss of her brother and everything that she had gone through. Wanda had stuck by Vision like glue and they got along so well, in the end he knew that their relationship had mended after the through the floor incident, but it took time and a friend. He hoped that with time Nebula would have the same chance to get out of her shell and learn to lean on others more.

They walked around the junk piles bit by bit, every once and a while stopping to pick up something and study it, they had found a little red wagon, like the one that Jarvis had given him when he had been four and wandering around looking for parts to build something that at the moment he couldn’t remember. He remembered that he had been happy at the time and even put a small lunch box inside the wagon to work in the yard like he was working on something important. It was still in one piece and Tony used it to put whatever he was taking back inside of it, while smiling at the memory of the one he had once had.

They had reached the city limits and couldn’t help but stare at the building at the center, he could swear the that the Hulk was staring back at him at that moment. He hadn’t had the chance to get the full story from Bruce about where he had been the last few years. Now that he saw the face of his big green friend he realized that there was so much more to the story than he would have expected.

“We’re going in there?” Nebula asked looking at the brightly colored streets in front of them.

He shrugged and wondered if it would be a good idea, “I’m not sure if we should, but in the end, we need all of the information we could get at this point.”

They stayed close to one another as they walked through the streets of the city, there were green Hulk figures everywhere and Tony wasn’t sure if her should be weirded out by it or if he should be impressed.

“This place looks like some eighties fever dream,” he said to Nebula as he studied the colors around him, it somehow reminded him of a trip him and Rhodey had taken when they had been at MIT together. He started laughing as he watched the people around them, he wasn’t sure why he was laughing, but it was good to feel something other than worry and despair.

Nebula stood next to him just watching his reaction to everything in front of them, not saying a word but somehow studying him. She was learning about him in the same way he was learning about her, they were the same and different all at once. They were becoming a family and it was something that he was happy about, he could always use another person in his life.

“Come on let’s go back to the junkyard there has to be something out there we could use,” he said after catching his breath. She nodded and followed him back out to where all of the junk had been piling up.

“I don’t understand a lot of the things you say,” she said to him as they walked. “It seems a little…”

“Weird,” he said as they watched the people around them. “I know, I feel the same way every time we pick up a new set of people.”

“We’re not from the same world, but I feel calm when I’m around you,” he looked over at her as she said it, she never smiled, never showed emotion but at that moment he knew that she was learning. Maybe her sister was the key to her happiness, and while that had been taken away she still had an anchor when she had once believed that she should have been lost.

“We’re family,” he said smiling at her. “Everyone I’m close to, even after we fight and we don’t speak to one another for a while, I consider them a part of my family, so you and hopefully once we reverse all of this your sister too, you can be a part of that family.”

“All my father has ever taught us was hate, he never knew love so I don’t understand why Gamora was what he needed for the stone,” she stared out into the distance not looking Tony in the eye but he understood how she felt.

“My father cared more about a man who had gone into the ice after a war over his own son,” he said thinking of Steve. “He talked about him all of the time and how I could never compare, but then he says I’m his greatest creation and I still felt like shit because he hadn’t said it when he was alive. Families are hard, but sometimes you get the chance to create your own, and it’s those people that show you what it really means.”

His family was currently split in two pieces and he wasn’t sure who survived the aftermath of what Thanos had done, “I met that man by the way,” he continued his story. “He had been alive, thawed out from what was supposed to be an icy grave, but in the end, he lived up to everything my father had once said about him, and so much more. He became my friend, and I trusted my life in his hands.”

Tony didn’t tell her the story of how the team split up, he didn’t mention what had happened with the Accords, because now, as he stood on some unknown planet, he knew that nothing mattered anymore. His family was his no matter how much they fought, because all families fight, it’s just how they come back to one another that matters most.

When they reached the edge of the city, he saw something he hadn’t thought he would see in a million years sitting in the middle of all of the junk flying down. The Quinjet, the one that the Hulk had taken, the one that he stopped Ultron from flying off in. It was sitting there, half mangled as if the Hulk had ripped out the other end of it. Dropping the handle of the wagon and rushed forward before walking into the shell of the jet. It was something familiar, something that screamed home to him.

Nebula walked in behind him, dragging the wagon along before leaving it at the back entrance and walking forward. “What is this?”

“I built it,” he said smiling back at her before reaching the controls at the front. His fingers running over a sticker on the right side. JARVIS is my co-pilot. He couldn’t help but smile at the familiarity of the console of the jet itself. Quickly he turned on the computers as it called out for his call sign, he put his hand on the scanner and smiled. “Stark,” he said out loud.

“Hello Boss,” the on-board computer said to him. He pulled up the holograms looking through all of the data streaming in through the console until he found what he was looking for. The portal that the Quinjet had come through, the one that had brought the Hulk to this unknown world. The one that would lead them to Earth, leading him home.

“Is there anything here that we can salvage?” Nebula said as she went through several bins, before landing on Natasha’s bin, her guns, her clothes everything making Nebula curious.

“We should take everything back to the ship, hell we should take the ship back to the Benatar,” he said before digging through his own bin, finding his shaving kit, a clean set of clothes and a picture of the Avengers before everything had changed.

He smiled at the photo, it had been taken after one of the Hydra raids, they had been dirty and exhausted but Natasha had JARVIS take the photo anyway. They were his family, the only one he had and he wanted to go home. Pulling out the communicator he had that Kraglin had handed him he signaled for the ship, telling them to go to where him and Nebula were. He was going to take apart the Quinjet and put whatever he could with the Benatar, before figuring out the best course for them to go through a portal.

When the Benatar landed the crew walked out curious about what Tony was doing, but he was already knee deep in the Quinjet’s engines, he had tools, his tools, and he was working faster than most of them could keep up with. Nebula studied Nat’s guns and the mountain of other tech there had been inside of the bins. Everyone else worked on moving whatever he handed them, with instructions on where they needed to put it. By the time night came the Quinjet was in pieces, only the hull of the ship remained and they were going to use that to patch up the Benatar.

Tony was covered in grease, his hair sticking out in every direction but he was happy all because he had done something so familiar. He had almost missed it when he saw Sif walking over with a group of people, most of which looked as if they had seen better days.

“They’re Asgardians,” Sif said as she reached the ship. “They were the last to survive Thanos’ and his attack.”

“Have you seen Thor, or the Hulk,” one woman said, in her hand she held a bottle of brown liquid, something he was sure was alcohol.

“Hulk, well Bruce landed on Earth weeks ago, before Thanos sent his cronies to attack us for the stones,” he said to her but that only caused the woman to rush towards him. “Was he alive?”

“Before I left he was,” Tony said as he looked into her eyes and saw both sadness and relief. “I’m not sure who survived afterwards, but I’m going to find out.”

None of the Asgardians spoke, Tony knew they’ve seen hell and lived to tell the tale. There had been so much pain for so many different people, from so many different places, and all of it was caused by one person.

“You can join us if you want to,” Nebula said, extending a hand to the people who had lost so much. It was the first time on this trip that she had done so and he knew it took a lot on her part to do so.

“We’re going back to Earth,” he added, the moment the invitation was out there those who stood before them nodded and began to walk forward, they looked as tired as he felt on the inside.

Nebula continued to help him get the supplies onto the ship, he had a lot of work to do and not a lot of time to do it. They had somehow gained another twenty people on the ship, which was filling up but it was enough for all of them to have some kind of hope. Once they were all settled Tony stood outside watching the stars as the portals dumped more trash onto the planet. Where all the junk came from he wasn’t too keen on finding out, but the systems on the Quinjet told him one thing that mattered. The way home.

Nebula sat next to him as he worked on the outside paneling of the Benatar, every once and a while handing him a tool or working on a piece of the ship herself after watching him patch it up a few times. They worked in silence, even though he wished he had some kind of music playing in the background. Sif worked on getting everyone settled on the ship, while Kraglin learned from the Quinjet’s manifest on how the ship had gotten to where it was.

“What do you think of the girl,” Nebula said as the sun began to rise behind them. “She seems as if she’s been through more than most of the people we’ve met.”

“Which one?” he said before realizing who Nebula was talking about. “Oh, you mean… well we don’t know much about what happened to them, my friend didn’t have the chance to tell me a lot when I saw him.”

“If you want to ask me something, say it to my face,” the woman in question said as she sat down next to them, a bottle in her hand. “You want a drink,” she held it out to him and as much as he wanted to, he didn’t, working on the ship instead. “More for me then.”

“Who are you?” Nebula asked as Tony continued to patch the ship up. They hadn’t slept in over twenty-four hours, but the ship was nearly complete and he would rather sleep when he got back to earth than stop for even a moment.

“I was one of the Valkyrie, a group of female warriors from Asgard before the goddess of death killed every one of them.”

“You survived,” Nebula said, this was the longest she had ever talked to someone and Tony wasn’t going to stop her.

“I survived because someone I cared for sacrificed themselves for my sake,” Valkyrie said before taking another drink from the bottle. “I lost a lot that day, but not as much as I’ve lost in the last few weeks.”

“How many of you were with Thor and Hulk,” he asked knowing that there must have been some kind of fight before the ones that were left had had their chance to escape.

“The last of the Asgardians were on the ship, along with the two princes, and several others, as far as I know, no one on that ship survived.”

Tony’s mind was stuck on the two princes, he thought back to how Thor had once said that Loki had died and that Strange had said something about Thor and his brother showing up weeks before Thanos attacked. The thought that Loki had somehow redeemed himself took him by surprise, especially after what had happened during the battle of New York and Coulson’s death. Tony didn’t want to know if Loki survived, because for some reason he was afraid that if one lived the other died and Thor loved his brother even after everything that had happened. Family was complicated, and no matter what had happened he knew that Thor wasn’t going to stop loving his brother.

“Go to bed,” he said to them, without looking either one of them in the eye. “I’ll finish this up and then get some sleep as well.”

He was dismissing them and they knew it, but neither questioned him about it, because to him the revelation that Loki and Thor had been able to get passed their differences meant that he also had that chance with the other Avengers. He just needed some time to think about how he was going to talk to them after so long apart, especially not knowing who survived.

The work on the ship took him another hour, when he was done the sun had come up and was already burning into his back as he slid back down the side of the ship. Another pile of junk flew down onto the ground from a nearby portal, everything that landed made loud noises reminding him of his bots making a mess in the workshop, or the sound of his music playing while FRIDAY ran projections for him without question. Those days had been so long ago, he wondered if Rhodey was taking care of his children, or if they had gotten to Vision on time, he wondered about all of the Avengers including the miniature Barton’s.

By the time he finished, he walked back to his small little workshop with a bowl full of water, and his shaving kit. He wanted one thing to feel like home even if it was his goatee. As he sat in front of the mirror shaving, he thought about what he wanted when he got home, a burger and some coffee, a long shower, and probably some sleep if he could get it. He thought about looking for Peter’s aunt, she needed to know, it hurt to think that she could be looking for him not knowing that he had died on Titan at the age of seventeen.

When he finished he felt like himself, and somehow that hurt even more because he wasn’t the same person he had been when he had left on that ship. Nothing was the same anymore and everything hurt, even though he was trying to stay calm, he knew that it would all come crashing down eventually. He sat back and looked at the pieces of the Quinjet laid out around the room, these were the parts he hadn’t used, and he couldn’t leave them behind because they were a part of the trip, both his and Bruce’s. He knew that he should use them for something but he wasn’t sure what, most of it was left over circuit boards and wires. Maybe they could become a part of the ship’s internal A.I. but that was something he needed to work on when he got back to Earth, anymore upgrades to the ship would take too long and he didn’t have enough parts to keep going.

A knock on the door drew him away from his thoughts, when he opened the door, the Valkyrie stood in front of him, another bottle in her hand. He wondered just how much she drank normally if she could still function without falling over.

“I’m not drinking anymore,” she said with a sigh. “Someone once told me that if I kept drinking the way I did that I would probably die.”

“They were probably right, but who I am to judge since I was the same at one point,” he said to her before standing up and walking out of the room. “So why did you come here?”

“That same person was your friend according to Sif,” she said looking at the bottle as if it held more answers than he could. “If he’s alive, I want him to know I did my best because we’re all that’s left of Asgard, we’re family and I need to be able to protect them.”

“I understand,” he said quietly before looking up and seeing Nebula standing against the wall. “We’ve all gained friends and family over the journeys we make, and we need to protect them no matter what.”

“Yeah that’s what she said to me,” Valkyrie said to him while pointing at Nebula. “You pick up broken people, and somehow keep them from self-destructing.”

“It’s what I do best,” he shrugged. “I never had a family that cared until I made one all on my own, maybe that what everyone on this ship needs, a family.”

Nebula nodded at him, he somehow adopted a group of wayward space aliens and made them a part of his life, he wondered if they could fix all of this without losing each other.

“Come on,” he said smiling at the two women in front of him. “We have a trip to finish,” he pulled them both along until they reached the front. The Asgardians were in the mess hall below the deck, while Kraglin, Sif, Rhomann, Duranna, Groot, and now Valkyrie, him and Nebula joined. “Let’s get to Earth and help out our friends.”

“Aye Aye Captain,” Kraglin said making Tony smile.

Tony walked over to the console before pulling up the navigation systems, he pieced together the route to Earth from when the Quinjet had landed on the planet they were now on. It was a longshot, he knew this, they could end up on the other side of the universe. But this was the time for chances, and math which he was good at.

“You’re going through that portal,” he said as the holoscreens lit up in front of them. “The ship is strong enough to survive the jump.”

Kraglin nodded at him before starting the systems, Nebula took her seat as co-pilot as the rest of the settled around them. Groot and Duranna as far from the front as possible, her father next to her manning the artillery. Sif and Valkyrie sat on the other side both ready for battle, if they landed on the wrong planet while Tony sat in the middle with the holoscreens lighting up the way. They had one shot at this, and he wanted to make sure they made it to the other side. He touched the arc-reactor on his chest waiting as the suit engulfed him before locking into place.

“Time to go home,” he said to himself as the ship took off into the unknown.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's a conversation between Nebula and Valkyrie that happens off screen, maybe one day I'll write it as a short one-shot, because those two are probably more relatable to one another with everything they've lost.
> 
> Will the team make it to their final destination? Will they get sucked into another world? Will Tony ever stop pining for a supersoldier? This and more in the next part!!
> 
> P.S. There's actually a Steve POV one-shot about what was happening on Earth that I've been working on, maybe I'll post it with the next chapter of this story.


	5. Part Five: Earth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know how I wrote this chapter, Endless, and yesterday's chapter. Oh well think of it as a celebration post (cause I got an A- in one of my classes)

The flight through the portal had thrown everyone off their axis, if it hadn’t been for the fact that they had all been strapped into their seats they would have been sent flying. Tony was safe, the suit kept him protected from whatever would have happened otherwise, but it was still a painful experience at that. He deactivated the suit the moment he was sure that they had safety landed on the other side and no one was going to attack them for being there. Looking out the window he knew they had made it as the ship sailed passed Mars on their right, they were close to Earth, he was almost home.

He put up the projected path for Kraglin and Nebula, making a stop at one of his satellites so that he could have the chance to install the communications array for the Xandarians. They moved forward faster than he could have imagined, or it had felt faster now that they were so close to their destination. Once they stopped at the satellite he stepped out using the suit as his only protection against the darkness of space. The main FRIDAY mainframe wasn’t connecting to the suit, and he was afraid that she would shut him out of the satellite, but nothing happened. The orbit of the satellite was off, and the connection to the Avengers facility wasn’t on, he had to reset it from his workshop when they got back on solid ground.

The array was set up, and he made sure that the satellite wouldn’t fall off orbit before he had a chance at resetting it. He looked out at the planet he had left behind so long ago, it felt like another lifetime now, one where so many mistakes had been made. He wouldn’t change any of it, because without all of those mistakes he wouldn’t have met the Avengers. Right now, all that mattered was finding his family, and fixing what Thanos had done.

“We’re good to go,” he said to the crew before going back to the ship, deactivating the suit as he walked through the back hatch and towards the front of the ship. “The only problem we have is that this one isn’t going to communicate with where we’re landing so I’m going to ping a signal from the ship to one of the other satellites and hope that they get the alert not to attack.”

“Are you sure that’s going to work?” Nebula asked him from the pilot seat, he knew that it was a lot to put on them, but they had to take the risk since none of them were entirely sure about what was waiting for them.

“I’m hoping so, but don’t worry too much we have enough fire power to hold them off, I would rather not use it but it’s there for a reason,” he said before heading towards the main console, “You pilot this while the rest set up for the final descent, once we’re down there we’ll get everyone some food and clean clothes, and we’ll work from there.”

“If you’re sure then,” she said as she began the decent.

Tony worked as quickly as he could, sending them the coordinates to the Avengers facility, the main lawn should be able to hold the ship. The first ping went out the moment they hit the outer atmosphere, the second ping went out as they flew over the Atlantic towards New York. FRIDAY hadn’t answered him even though he had been trying to connect the ship and the suit to her mainframe, he knew he would have to upgrade her so that she would be able to reach him on the far side of the universe.

“We’ve got fighters,” Nebula said pointing towards the building in front of them as a group of SHIELD agents aimed guns towards them.

“Do not engage, just land the ship,” he said to her they couldn’t take out any of the personnel, especially since they worked for the Avengers if they worked out of the facility.

The moment the ship landed he saw a familiar blonde god of thunder rushing out of the front doors, Tony hit the button for the back hatch and allowed Valkyrie and Sif to take the Asgardians out of the ship first. Kraglin moved away with the Xandarians leaving Tony and Nebula alone on the ship. He was home, and all of sudden his legs felt weak, it could have been because he hadn’t really slept in the last few days, but he didn’t know if he would be able to make it out there without breaking down. Weeks’ worth of flying through space, weeks of wondering if he would ever make it home, wondering about the fate of his friends and family. Now he had an answer and he wasn’t sure he would be able to face it, to face the reality of whether or not they lived or died.

Nebula helped him get to the back of the ship holding onto him as they walked out, he wasn’t sure what to expect. He watched as Thor greeted his friends and the last of his people, as Bruce joined them. As Kraglin talked to a freaking raccoon who was crying, at that point he was sure that he had been hallucinating, until he came face to face with a bearded Steve Rogers standing in front of him wearing the same uniform he had been wearing the last time they had seen one another.

Steve rushed forward towards him and reached out to him before slowly pulling back and Tony couldn’t take it, he couldn’t have someone leave him behind. He grabbed onto Steve’s hands and pulled him close before the weight of the last few weeks settled on him. He couldn’t stop himself, the feeling of Peter dying in his arms, the fight on Titan, everyone turning to ash around him, the fear of never seeing everyone he cared about ever again, and the fact that he hadn’t picked up that stupid phone in two years even though he carried it everywhere with him.

He could feel his body shaking, the tears flowing out of his eyes, his heart felt like it was breaking in two and all there was, right there in that moment, was Steve holding onto him so tightly Tony swore he would break in the man’s arms. Soon after, someone else’s arms wrapped around him, before a group of people surrounded them, their family, or at least what was left of them. For the first time since he got on that ship to help Peter, to save Strange, to stop a madman, Tony felt safe, and just let go until the darkness overtook him and he passed out in Steve’s arms.

* * *

When he woke up Steve was still next to him, sitting on a chair in his room at the facility, the beard was real, he swore he had dreamed it. But there is was on his face, and Tony couldn’t figure out why it looked so good on the man.

“It’s weird,” he said making Steve’s head snap up. “You look like a completely different version of yourself.”

“And yet you look exactly the same,” Steve said a small smile playing on his face. “That girl you came with threaten my wellbeing, I don’t know how I should take that.”

“Yeah well, I sort of adopted her after what had happened,” Tony said thinking of Nebula alone in the facility with no one to help her. “Where is she?”

“Nat took her to one of the rooms, gave her new clothes and probably some food,” Steve answered him before standing up and moving towards the bed. “I thought you had died like the rest of them, I thought of how stupid it had been that I never called, about how we should have been together before all of this.”

Tony stayed still he didn’t know what to do or say, especially when the 250-pound super soldier sat down on the bed next to him. They were both quiet, the only sound in the room was their breathing, and even then, Tony wasn’t sure he was breathing right.

“Tony,” Steve said taking his hand. “I’m sorry…” he stopped for a moment as if he were waiting for Tony to push him away, for him to take his hand back, but all he wanted was the warmth it offered. “I’m so sorry about everything.”

“So am I,” Tony said, his voice low, the tears fresh in his eyes. Weeks of traveling, of surviving in an unknown universe, never knowing if he would get home. “I couldn’t save them,” he whispered as everything came crashing down on him. “Peter was just a kid, he was seventeen and he faded away in my hands and I couldn’t do anything,” it felt like all of the air had left his lungs and all that was left was this deep darkness that wanted to consume him. “Strange said it was the only way, that out of over fourteen million possibilities we only win once, and then he gave Thanos the time stone. I couldn’t stop him.”

Tony fell apart next to Steve, he didn’t know what else to do, it hurt so much and there was nothing he could have done to fix any of it. Steve put his arms around him and held onto him as if it was all he needed, Tony didn’t know who else survived, he had stopped paying attention the moment he had left the ship. It had been too much to take after denying himself the time to mourn the loss of so much, he wasn’t sure if he could take another blow.

“Captain Rogers,” FRIDAY said pulling Tony out of his own despair. “Princess Shuri has figured out how to revive Vision.”

The words jolted Tony away from the sadness he had been feeling, Vision the last connection to the mind stone, the last connection Tony had to JARVIS, his friend. The thought of the stone being ripped from his head, hurt so much.

“I’ll be there in a minute FRIDAY,” Steve replied before turning back to Tony.

“Who else,” was all Tony could say.

“T’Challa, Sam, Bucky, Wanda,” he said before taking a deep breath. “Natasha also confirmed that Maria Hill and Director Fury were among those who were taken.”

“The Barton’s,” he said looking up meeting Steve’s blue eyes for the first time since he woke up.

“Clint got back to us, and the kids are alright but Laura didn’t make it,” Steve said, a sadness in his voice, the thought that these people all died hurt him even more. “They’re on their way here along with Scott Lang and Hope Pym.”

“Too many people died Steve,” he said his throat hurt, like he had been screaming, but it was just the fact that he had been holding in the pain inside of his heart. “Pepper, Happy? Any word from them?”

“Rhodes checked, but there hasn’t been any word from either one, and if they had survived they would have been here by now.”

Tony nodded, he knew he should grieve, but he no longer had the luxury, he needed to do what Strange wanted him to do, the reason why they had been the ones to survive, they were going to fix this. He got up off the bed and walked over to the dresser, grabbing a change of clothes before going to the in-suite bathroom, leaving Steve alone in the room. He brushed his teeth, washed his face and took care of business before stepping back out and facing the surprised super soldier.

“You should rest,” Steve said but Tony shook his head.

“We’re going to fix this,” he said before walking out of his room and heading towards the lab that Shuri was using.

Tony hadn’t had the chance to meet T’Challa’s sister, everything had gone to shit so quickly back then that he hadn’t taken the time to meet the genius. Somehow Tony was collecting broken people, and now he had added a monarch to the growing list thanks to Steve. They walked without saying another word, and when he reached the room Nebula was standing there looking around confused at all of the things surrounding her. When he looked over he also saw the raccoon that he had sworn hadn’t been real, was sitting next to her talking softly to her, asking questions. They knew each other, and Tony knew that this was yet another broken piece of the puzzle.

“Tell us what you have,” Tony said without hesitation, without introductions, they didn’t have time for pleasantries. Shuri looked up and nodded, she was the same way, she knew there was nothing left but the work they had ahead of them.

“I had done enough during the battle in trying to separate the stone from his mind, we can reconnect the synapsis in his brain with the cradle that Dr. Cho had left here, and with enough vibranium we may be able to jump start him,” she said using Tony’s computers to show her progress. “Most likely he will remember everything that had happened, including the pain of having the stone removed, his powers had been connected to it as well so he may not have his abilities but he will have knowledge of the stone that had been on his forehead. Or at least that’s what we hope.”

“There’s some raw vibranium on the ship,” Tony said before looking at Nebula, she was the only other person who knew where it was. Tony had hidden it after they had left Knowhere, after he had repaired his suit and her arm.

“We brought some over from Wakanda,” Bruce said looking at Tony for the first time since he had left his friend behind to help save Peter. “We can do this, especially with Thor’s help, just to recreate the process that had brought him to life.”

“Aye,” Thor said looking at them. “I will help in any way needed, as long as we fix what Thanos has brought down upon us.”

The group separated, Nebula followed him, as he headed towards his workshop, he needed something normal in his life and his machines, his suits, his work, that’s what was normal to him. The door opened with prompting as he walked inside, the screens turned on illuminating the place. DUM-E rolled towards him letting out a happy chip, he couldn’t help but pat him on his claw.

“I missed you too buddy,” he said before stepping up to the center console. “Alright kids, daddy’s home, time to get to work.”

“This is what you do,” Nebula said fascinated by the room around them.

“I create things, I fix things, it’s who I am,” he said smiling at her. “You already know this, I fixed the ship, your arm, a million other things on the trip over here.”

“It wasn’t to this extent,” she walked over to where U was cleaning looking at the bot with something close to affection. “Are they pets?”

“No, they’re my kids, I created them as well as the A.I. in the ceiling,” he said pulling up the schematics for the suit as he put the reactor on the table in front of him before activating it. He need to fix the suit’s internal systems so that they would still work if he were in outer space.

Nebula nodded before patting U on the head and walking over to where he stood, “What are you working on now then?”

“The suit needs an upgrade, among other things, we need to be ready to face your father,” he turned to face her and smiled. “You can explore the facility, until we’re ready it’s going to be your home.”

“I don’t know,” she said and Tony knew what the problem was, she was afraid of what people would think if they knew who she was.

“Duranna can go with you,” he said before pushing her towards the door. “You have to socialize, if anyone around here knows anything about family it’s me, and Thor, and probably half of the people here.”

“I’ll try, but that means you have to go out there as well,” she said before pulling him with her. He forgot how strong she was, especially since upgrading her arm.

“Fri, run the diagnostics on the suit and send the specs to my tablet.”

“Will do boss,” FRIDAY said as Nebula pulled Tony out of the workshop.

He hadn’t faced anyone except for Steve, he was afraid of them, not in the sense that they would hurt him but because he didn’t want to see the pain in their eyes, the same pain he had been carrying around since they left Titan. As they walked out towards the main floor, he saw the Avengers sitting around the television. Tony knew what it meant, movie night, they were looking for some kind of normalcy.

“We’re going to watch the Star Wars,” Natasha said smiling at him. “Come take a seat.”

Tony looked over at Nebula before she pulled him forward and pushed him into the seat next to Steve before sitting down next to the raccoon, he still wasn’t sure about why there was a walking, talking raccoon, but then again there was a tree who said one line so he didn’t question a lot. Duranna and Groot sat on the other side of the couch, her father had gone to bed after the long journey, but the little girl was wide awake. Valkyrie sat down next to Nebula, Thor on her other side, Bruce on the floor in front of her. It was weird but they seemed comfortable around one another.

There was so much that awaited them, so much that they needed to talk about, but instead they sat there, bowls of popcorn on their laps, pizza boxes everywhere. It felt like being home. That’s how he finally felt himself relax, falling asleep next to Steve his head on the super soldier’s shoulder.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think I may have inadvertently started shipping Nebula and Valkyrie (I don't know how it happened, but it happened)  
> Tony and Steve working on their issues is something that gives me life, because there's no time to be angry about anything.


	6. To the End of the Universe

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “The end is only the beginning” ~T.S. Eliot

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It is just after midnight, June 16th 2018, as I finish writing this. Today is my birthday, and my gift to you is the ending to this story.  
> I give you some fluff, some angst and a sprinkle of jokes. I still don't know what I'm doing but it's done now so I hope everyone enjoyed the story

Tony was sure that he was in Queens, his mind racing as he wondered how he had gotten there. He could have sworn that he had been at the facility, but it looked as if nothing had happened, everything felt like a dream. And then a figure swung in front of him until the gangly form of Spiderman stood before him. Peter in all his superhero glory. The kid walked off towards an alley before coming back dressed in jeans and a t-shirt the he swore came from some off the wall place.

“Hey Mr. Stark,” Peter said, smiling at him with his ten-thousand-watt smile. Tony often wondered if he ever had a son would he be like Peter Parker.

“Hey kid,” he said ruffling the kid’s unruly hair. “What were you up to? Anyone give you a churro?”

“Nah, just some guy who stole someone’s bike, nothing very exciting,” Peter said as he hitched up his backpack.

It felt like a normal day, even though he was in Queens for no reason whatsoever, there were no battles, no near-death experiences, just him and the kid talking about his school project, or Peter trying to tell him about some random video he had seen. He felt the pain before he saw what had happened, one moment he was in Queens the next he had been stabbed by Thanos. He was on Titan now, almost as if his mind was trying to remind him of what he had lived through. About what he couldn’t change. One minute they were fighting the next everyone was turning to ash all around him, and then Peter clinging to him not wanting to die. The painful feeling in his gut returning, the wound should have healed by now, but everything felt painful.

“Tony,” a voice said but it felt so far away, he couldn’t grasp onto who was talking. “Tony, you have to wake up now,” the voice called out.

He could feel himself screaming out, Peter’s ashes gathering up in his lungs, suffocating him, killing him. No one was left but him and Nebula, on an empty planet full of relics of a past life. Everything gone in an instant.

“There was no other way,” Strange telling him before he faded.

He felt as if the wound was bleeding again, he needed to close it as soon as possible, he needed to save them, he needed to save the kid. Everything around him changed again, this time he was in Afghanistan, the bomb went off next to the car, another kid he couldn’t save, the bomb went off next to him. He couldn’t even save himself. Slowly imagine after image flashed through his mind, Yinsen talking to him when they were in the cave, Rhodey when he could still walk, Pepper crying when he came back, Obie ripping out the reactor, Obie dying, Coulson dying, Loki, Ultron, Pietro. So much death following him around, and he didn’t know what to do about any of it.

“Tony, please you have to get up,” the voice in the distance called out to him before a cold rag was placed on his forehead.

It felt like being stabbed a million times, it felt like being waterboarded by the ten rings, like Ultron taunting him little by little until there was nothing left of him. Wanda’s vision in his head, the team dead around him, Steve on the ground telling him that he should have done more. Steve fighting him at the airport, the avengers splintered, the shield hitting his suit over and over again.

“You’re fine, you’re in New York, at the Avengers facility,” the voice said, it was familiar, it sounded like home. “Nothing is going to happen to you I promise.”

Steve’s voice finally broke through the torrent of memories flooding his mind, he wasn’t in space, or Siberia, or Sokovia, he was in New York. His family all around him, he was going to be alright.

When he opened his eyes, Steve was looking down at him, a sad knowing look in his eyes. They’ve all been through too much in such a short amount of time, they’ve seen more than most people have in entire lifetimes. Still they had a mission to do and people to save, the end of the world be damned, they were Avengers, they were going to get everyone back.

Everyone else left the room, leaving the two of them alone, the good mood from earlier had been broken, his nightmares were real not only to him but to everyone around him.

“I’m sorry I left,” Steve said when they were the only ones left.

Tony thought about it, he should have called, they both should have talked, “It’s not your fault,” he said to the man.

“Actually,” Steve said looking out at the empty room. “I walked away after you fell asleep, I went to get you a blanket and when I got back you were having a nightmare.”

His mind was going a mile a minute, he thought they were talking about the same thing but in reality, they weren’t even on the same page. Tony sighed to himself before taking the blanket and wrapping it around himself. He wasn’t sure how to bring up what had happened, or if he should bring it up. They’ve been through so much in the last month, with Thanos and the shit storm that had been. They could talk about it until they were blue in the face but somehow it felt as if they would never be finished apologizing for something. They needed to talk about it and get it out once and for all.

“I’m also sorry about what had happened,” Steve said as he sat down next to him. “I don’t regret protecting Bucky, but I do regret not telling you sooner.”

“I’m sorry for going after him, I had time to think about it all in the last two years, and while I know it was Hydra controlling him, I should have talked about everything before going nuts on you guys.”

“I don’t blame you for that,” Steve sighed before running his hand through his hair, Tony had noticed that it had grown more than he knew was normal for the super soldier, but it fit him, so did the beard. Leave it to Rogers to make a full beard look good with his baby face, though it aged him and made him look more mature. “Tony, we honestly have a lot to talk about.”

“No,” Tony said interrupting him. “The time for talking has passed, I say let bygones be and move on because the past will only hurt us more. How about we start from the beginning,” he said before putting his hand out. “Hi, my name is Tony, I’m a genius, billionaire, super hero.”

Steve smiled at him before taking his hand, “Nice to meet you Tony, I’m Steve, I’m a soldier adjusting to life after war, as well as a super hero.”

“Good to meet you,” Tony said smiling at Steve. “Now that we have introductions out of the way, let’s go plan the next step in our Thanos takedown over some coffee and whatever is in the fridge because honestly I fell asleep before I could eat enough.”

“Sounds good to me,” Steve said before standing up and taking Tony’s hand to pull him up. “You need a haircut by the way, but then again I do like the little curls that are forming at the ends of your hair.”

“Look who’s talking, when was the last time you had a haircut,” he said with a smile. “You look like Kurt Cobain with a beard.”

“Hey, I understood that reference,” Steve said a huge smile on his face.

“Who taught you about Cobain? And do I have to shoot them?”

“I looked him up when I was reading about the 1990’s, plus everyone recommended some kind of music to me, it was Wanda that told me to listen to Nirvana.”

The room was quiet for a moment, Tony felt like there was a string pulling at his heart, he watched Vision learn about love and forgiveness with Wanda, he made sure Vision had a way to meet her even if she hadn’t known it. It hurt to think that she had faded, he wasn’t entirely sure what had happened on that battlefield.

“Will you tell me one thing,” Tony said looking up at Steve. “What was the plan, the one that you guys tried to pull off during the battle against Thanos?”

“The overall plan was for Wanda to take the stone out of Vision’s head and destroy it, after Shuri found a way to separate the stone from Vision.”

“I’m guessing that it didn’t work out too well,” he said feeling the weight on his shoulders once again.

“It would have except…”

“He had the time stone, and reversed everything,” Tony interrupted him. “I don’t know why Strange hadn’t used it against Thanos, why he had kept it lock up in that shiny necklace of his.”

“I think we’re past the what if’s we need to move towards the next part of the plan, the part that helps bring everyone back,” Steve said before putting his hand on Tony’s shoulder and squeezing it.

It was reassuring for Tony, the warm hand on his shoulder, the familiar surroundings, the feel that they could get back to where they had been before. They spent the rest of the night talking about the last two years, Tony’s failed attempt at making a normal relationship with Pepper work, before the disaster of a proposal, and them realizing they were better as friends. Mentoring Peter, and how Happy had been the go between him and Spiderman.

“I never thought about having kids until I met Peter and afterwards I thought hey I could be a good dad, if he didn’t give me a heart attack every time he did something stupid on the battlefield,” Tony had said remembering each report he got from Peter after a day of being a friendly neighborhood Spiderman.

Steve told him about what had happened after he had left Bucky in Wakanda, and helped get the other Avengers out of the Raft. He talked about how him and Sam had been working on missions together before Natasha had found them. While getting regular updates on Bucky’s recovery from Wakanda.

“Shuri took him out of cryo and worked with him to regain his memories, while fighting the code words. He was completely isolated from the world and while I could visit him, I tried not to go back too much so that it wouldn’t bring that kind of attention to Wakanda after they agreed to open their borders,” Steve told him.

“It’s good to know that they got everything out of his head,” Tony said trying to think about how he could have done it himself. “Maybe Shuri would tell me her secret, it could help me tweak the B.A.R.F.”

“You know that’s a horrible name for a project,” Steve said smiling at him.

“Not my fault it spelled itself out like that, and I’m not changing it either, it’s fun to watch people try and say something about it only to fumble at the name,” he said before he started yawning.

“You should get some sleep,” Steve said while getting up to collect the dishes they had eaten from. At his words Tony felt his body stiffen, the thought of closing his eyes, even for just a moment, made him fear the dreams. “If you want I can stay with you.”

“I don’t know,” Tony said feeling his voice waver, “Would it be too weird?”

“Tony, the nightmares are bad enough, you don’t need to worry about going through them alone, none of us should, especially after everything we’ve been through.”

“I… I sometimes dream of Siberia,” Tony said his voice low enough that no one else could hear. “I dream about being too cold, trapped inside the suit, but then it changes into something worse, into Titan and what happened on that damn planet.”

Steve didn’t say a word, and Tony knew he was trying to find a way to apologize, but before he could say anything Tony turned to him and sighed, “You don’t have to sleep on the bed, but I guess it would be good to have someone nearby.”

“How about you sleep under the covers and I’ll sleep on top of them,” Steve suggested and all Tony could do was nod, it wasn’t a bad idea as long as they both got some sleep.

Without another word they made their way to his room, it was still dark enough outside that FRIDAY lit the way in soft muted lights so they wouldn’t wake anyone else up. Neither of them said a word as Tony climbed into bed and settled himself on top of the pillows. Steve settled in next to him, putting a pillow between them.

“How did you sleep when you were on the ship?” Steve asked when they had been staring at the ceiling for far too long.

“Most of the time I got an hour here or there,” Tony said knowing it sounded bad in his head. “Other times I got four to six hours, but that was after exhausting myself to the point where the dreams wouldn’t come.”

“How was it that you could fall asleep the moment you got here?”

“I guess it was the relief that not everyone I cared about was dead, that some of you survived the aftermath of what had happened.”

“But the nightmares came back,” Steve said before Tony heard a muffed sound coming from the other man. “I feel like so much of this could have been avoided if we had just stayed together instead of fighting.”

“If wishes were fishes,” Tony said out loud. “We could have a million different what if’s right now, but what we really need is a what’s next, and I think reviving Vision is the key to all of this. So, let’s get some sleep and in the morning, we’ll go to Shuri and see what she has for us.”

“Okay,” Steve said before settling himself on top of the comforter.

It took Tony a few more minutes to fall asleep after that, too much going through his mind, but listening to Steve’s soft breathing as it evened out helped relax him until sleep finally came, without the nightmares that had plagued his mind for so long now.

* * *

There are only five ways that Tony deems the best way to wake up, one is of course having coffee the moment he gets up, two is having a dreamless satisfying sleep, the third option is waking up with someone which at the moment was how he found himself with a two hundred forty pound supersoldier being the big spoon. The other ways involve sex, but he wasn’t going to get any of that anytime soon. He felt warm and comfortable, and for some reason he didn’t feel weird about that, but it wasn’t Steve wrapped around him that had woken him up.

“Jesus,” he said when he finally felt awake enough to look out into the room only to be greeted by Nebula standing over him. “Give me a heart attack why don’t you.”

Nebula gave him a look, one that could only convey the fact that he hadn’t woken up soon to help her with something, that thing was unknown to him at the moment. Steve had stirred the moment Tony had jerked awake, and when Tony had looked over he had seen Steve grab a pillow as if it were as good as his shield.

“Stand down soldier,” Tony said before turning his attention back to Nebula. “What do you need?”

“Everyone has been calling you for breakfast, I volunteered to wake up, but I hadn’t known that you had company,” she said her voice dry, but he could feel the edge of something in her words, especially with the way she was looking at Steve. Protective was something he wouldn’t have thought she was so it was a little surprising. “If you need me, Valkyrie and I will be sparring, I want to test out the strength of my upgraded arm, and she said something about needing practice with her sword.”

“Did you eat before you decided to spar?” Tony asked her acting every bit like a parent, which felt weird but he did the same thing with Peter, the image of Peter fading in his arms came quickly but he pushed it back. He was going to find a way to get the kid back to his Aunt if it were the last thing he would do.

“Yes, they made all kinds of food, although a lot of it is foreign to me but I had some,” she said before turning around. “And Captain Rogers,” she turned to face Steve from the door of his room. “If you hurt him I will kill you and no one will ever find the body.”

Once she was gone Tony chanced a lot at Steve who was still staring at the door, “Someone probably told him about what happened,” Tony said but before he could say anything else Steve started laughing. “Okay, so how was a death threat funny?”

“She’s protecting you,” he said with a smile. “Something close to a kid protecting their parent after they’ve started dating again, it’s cute especially with how she scowls all of the time.”

“Well she grows on you that’s for sure,” Tony said smiling at the way Nebula was with him, she acted stoic almost like nothing touched her, but in a few small instances he noticed that all she wanted was to be accepted and loved. “Let’s go get some breakfast before it’s all gone.”

“We should probably add more food to the grocery list with all of the people here,” Steve said, ever the tactician. “Clothes too, I doubt they have much in that regard either.”

“For now, they can use the spare shield uniforms, I’ll have Fri order more in everyone’s sizes.”

“Already done Boss,” FRIDAY said to them, for Tony it still felt weird to hear her voice even after installing an AI into the ship. It felt like home.

“That’s my girl,” he said smiling. This was definitely home.

“Also, Princess Shuri is asking for you and Captain Rogers to meet her in one of the labs, she’s working with Doctor Banner and they’re almost ready to bring Vision back.”

“We’ll be there in five minutes,” Steve said getting up off the bed and smoothing out his hair. Tony couldn’t help but look at the other man as he stretched, but this wasn’t the time to think about that they needed to get to work.

“Coffee first,” Tony said trying to get his brain to restart.

“You get the coffee, I’ll grab whatever is left over from breakfast and we’ll eat on the way,” Steve said as he walked out of the room.

Neither said a word about waking up in the other’s arms, they had more pressing matters to worry about. Steve walked over to where everyone was eating and piled some food onto a plate, mostly things they could carry, while Tony filled up two coffee mugs and added cream and sugar to Steve’s and just a bit of cream to his own. Once they had their food they walked over to the lab that Shuri had commandeered and watched as she rushed around the room plugging things into the cradle they had at the facility.

That was the first time he saw Vision’s lifeless form lying there, this isn’t the first time he’s seen him in the cradle, but this was so much worse than the first time. The once reddish purple skin was now a dull reddish gray, his head was mostly sunken in, there was a hole where the mind stone had once been. Everything else was the exposed circuits that helped create Vision’s brain, and who he was, the same android who had learned to fall in love.

“I should have protected him more,” Tony whispered as he took in the prone form. “I should have made sure that he was safe from what was coming.”

“Tony it’s not your fault, we tried to separate his conciseness from the stone, but we didn’t have enough time, we didn’t know this was coming,” Steve said but to Tony it felt like a dull buzzing in his mind.

_You could have saved us._

 He’s known for too long that this was going to happen, he’s known since the Battle of New York when he flew through a portal, when they were trying to get the scepter.

_You could have saved us._

“I’ve known for years,” he whispered as the fading image of Steve dying in front of him faded into the background. “We’ve known since the battle of New York when the first of these damn stones showed up, but we never thought passed it, but after the Mandarin I rebuilt the tower to keep us together. I started building the Iron Legion, but the word started hating us and then Ultron happened, and the Accords, and we just ran out of time.”

“You’re right,” Steve said to him as if he realized what Tony’s known all along, they should have been better prepared, they should have stayed together. “We were all so busy with our own things too that we lost sight of the bigger picture.”

“That we needed to stay together, learn to work as one just to stop something worse than our own individual needs.”

They didn’t say a word after that, Bruce looked at them and waved them over, Steve standing next to Shuri, while Tony stood next to Bruce.

“We need to create the same conditions in which the Vision was created,” Shuri said before launching into the mechanics of what they needed to do, but all Tony could do was stare at the lifeless body of what was once his last connection to Jarvis, his child.

“I’ll call Thor down here,” Bruce said before looking at Tony with a worried expression. They all looked at him, they had all lost something recently, but Tony was teetering on the edge of losing his mind.

Instead of giving into the grief he decided to be proactive, so he stood by Shuri and worked with her mapping Vision’s neuropathways, while Bruce worked on the biological side of their work. There was no back-up for Vision, he could have no memory pass his first days of life. Without the stone they weren’t sure what they were able to salvage and what they had lost. When Thor finally made his way down, he hadn’t been alone, Natasha had followed him, Rhodey not far behind. He still hadn’t talked to his brother about anything that had happened, but Rhodey knew as much as anyone, that Tony wasn’t very good at handling the toil this was going to take on him. He would be there with a bottle of scotch and an ear to listen to all of his problems. And that was something Tony didn’t want to burden the man with.

“I have heard that you want to recreate the moment that we had brought the Vision to life,” Thor said as he walked into the room.

“It could work, at least to bring him back, he might have some knowledge of the stone and its connections to the others, but we’re not sure how much of his memories will be in tact when he awakens,” Shuri said while rubbing her arms. Remembering what Steve had told him about Shuri working to separate Vision from the stone and how it hadn’t happened, Tony wondered if she blamed herself for what happened to her brother. Tony didn’t blame her, it had been an impossible task with the short amount of time she had had.

“Then we shall recreate this moment,” Thor said before summoning his lighting as Tony, Bruce, and Shuri worked on setting up the monitors, working to make sure that everything was in place just as a blot of lighting hit the cradle.

Vision didn’t wake up when they were done, and Tony all but lost hope of getting his friend back. Then he heard it, a beat, the monitor was lighting up as the neuropathways began to connect to one another. For the first time since he returned to Earth, he felt hope rising inside of him. The cradle worked to fix what had been damaged when Thanos removed the stone.

“For now, we wait and see,” Bruce said, the room silent as everyone heard the beeps for every part of Vision that reconnected.

“Boss,” Friday interrupted the silence after a moment. “The Scott Lang, Hope Pym and the Barton’s have arrived.”

 “I’ll go greet them,” Steve said but Tony shook his head. “We can all go together, Clint is going to need a friendly face.”

Natasha nodded at the group, as the five Avengers looked at one another. “As a team,” she said and Tony knew it was because they had been together six years before, they were the original Avengers. They were family, even if they fought.

“Let’s go,” Tony said before Natasha walked over and put her arm around his, giving his hand a squeeze.

The first thing Tony sees once they’re on the main floor are the kids, they’re running towards them, their family, even if they haven’t seen or spoken to some of them in years, they were still family. The kids talking excitedly to Nat about their trip, no one bringing up the fact that they were missing one person from their family. Clint looks like he lost some weight, as if the weight of losing his wife pressed down on him. Tony wasn’t sure how to approach the archer, all he did was put his hand on the other man’s shoulder and squeezed before turning towards their other two guests.

“I’ll show you guys to where you’ll be staying,” he said before Clint put his arms around Tony and hugged him. Tony knew that he was looking for comfort but he also didn’t want to upset the kids, so he pushed Clint out of the room and sat him on a bench just outside the doors. Clint crying on his shoulder, as everything came crashing down around him. Neither said a word to one another, especially since the last he’s heard from the archer had been harsh and cruel. But to Tony the past was in the past and nothing was going to change that, all they had was the future, and finding a way to change the damage that had been done.

Once Clint was finished crying Tony spoke up, “We have a part of a plan, but we’re going to need you Legolas, we need our archer to help us out here. Do you think you’re up for it?”

“As long as I get a crack at the asshole responsible,” Clint said his eyes focused on the distant buildings surrounding the compound.

“Well get in line, we all want a chance at him, but we’ll fill you in when everything is ready, we’re still working on waking Vision.”

Clint stood up patting Tony on the shoulder before moving away, it was their way of apologizing to one another, they’ve been through enough pain, they didn’t need more.

Instead of following him into the compound Tony sat there watching at the summer breeze blew around the afternoon sun. The clouds that must have formed when Thor summoned his lighting were moving away from the grounds. There was something about the silence around him that put him at peace. They were inching closer to a goal, but they still had a lot of ground to cover before they reached the end.

“I remember my father talking about sending the Chitauri here,” Nebula said as she sat down next to Tony and looked out at the same field of green he was looking at. “He talked about how he had given the staff to Loki of Asgard, how he had used Loki as a way to scout other planets, those that might have any of the stones. My father had been good at manipulating others, using them for his own gain, but there was something that had been said to him after the battle, after the Chitauri had been defeated.”

“What was that?” Tony said wanting to know more about why Thanos had targeted them in the first place, yes some of the stones had been on Earth, but why send Loki and not come himself.

“The Other, he was one of my father’s minions, he said that to challenge Earth again would be to court Death, I don’t think my father knows this just yet, but he has awoken a sleeping giant, and I think that you and your companions maybe what is needed to finally defeat him.”

“Do you think he really knew about me?” Tony said thinking back to what Thanos had said during their fight. “That he knew who I was?”

“I doubt he knew who you were personally at first, but from what I’ve heard about the soul stone is that it has the ability to look into another person’s soul, he could have used the stone against you without you knowing it and then realized the truth about who you are.”

“I was the one who blew up the Chitauri ship while everyone else fought on the ground,” he said remembering the bomb, the darkness of the other side of space, the reminder that there was something more out there.

“He feared you in a way, you and those who fought alongside you,” she said to him picking at her arm. “He fears what he can’t control, I think if he had the chance he would have taken you and made you one of his children.”

“What if I didn’t want it?”

“He wouldn’t have given you a choice, he never gave anyone a choice.”

Tony nodded, choosing to stay silent at her words, he knew there was more than what they were saying but so much had already been lost. All they had left was the hope of changing the future, or finding a way to fix the past. The two of them sat there watching the movement of the trees, the soft wind brushing them aside, as the sun shined on them.

The quiet was broken as the alarms sounded throughout the compound, Steve running out through the doors followed by the rest of the Avengers. A plane was landing in the middle of the grassy area in front of them. It looked like one of the military ships Tony had seen so much of while he had worked as a contractor but it looked so different from one as well. Once the plane landed, the glass cockpit opened before a woman wearing a red, blue and gold uniform floated out of the plane. Rhodey had moved forward, ahead of all of them, Tony wanted to grab his friend and stop him. He didn’t want another casualty as a result of not planning.

“Carol,” he said as he continued to move forward. The rest of them standing stock still watching as newcomer walked towards Rhodey.

Tony knew what they were all thinking, this was going to be the moment where everything changed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cliffhanger ending..... Don't kill me.  
> I'm working on the next part, actually the next three parts, two one-shots and another full story. I'm not done with this.... I won't be done until I get a Happily Ever After damn it.....

**Author's Note:**

> This is going to be a six-part story, maybe after it's done I'll write more I'm not 100% sure just yet, hell while I'm at it I'll just do what I want, who wants to join the Thanos Murder Squad????  
> Other characters to be added as the story comes along!
> 
> Comment.... Kudos.... Tell me what you think!


End file.
